I’m feeling fizzy as I’m interviewing Jacinda Ardern tonight. I can’t wait to talk to her about Ginny & Georgia. JK! This series was such a buzzkill. I will not be talking about it with former world leaders, or anyone else for that matter.

This week I almost swallowed a fly—I felt something furry in my mouth when I drank my coffee, and pulled it out by its leg; I think I might have left a limb behind, a detail I can’t dwell on—and now my husband won’t stop singing “there was an old woman who swallowed a fly” when he sees me.

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden has won 2025’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. I read it last week—I’ll write about it soon, but I think it was a worthy winner. Even more impressive for being a debut. Of the rest of the short list, I DNF The Persians, haven’t yet read Good Girl, and really liked All Fours (more here), Tell Me Everything (here) and Fundamentally (here). Of the longlist, I also loved The Ministry of Time (more here) and The Dream Hotel (here).

I have over 76,000 photos on my camera roll and enough is enough. Starting this week, I have begun deleting 100 photos a day. I’ve even set a daily alarm (deleting mems) to remind me. Most of them are screenshots of directions, or other inessential effluvia. My aim is to get down to 5,000 photos. (Maybe less? What’s the ideal number of photos for a 38 year old? Thoughts welcome.)

James Frey is back. ICYMI, in 2005, Frey wrote a wildly popular memoir, A Million Little Pieces, which was chosen by Oprah for her book club, and later revealed to be heavily fabricated. Two decades on, he’s unbothered (“I just sit in my castle and giggle”) with a—shall we say—robust ego (“Everybody wants a hug and a Putlizer. I don’t.”) He thinks that if it happened today, in the culture of fake news and alternative facts, it wouldn’t have been anything like as big a scandal. Depressingly, I think he’s right. He’s still furious with Oprah—who apologised to him in 2011—for the public shaming. “She told more lies to the public times a thousand than I ever have.” Intriguing.

My animal meme habit is getting out of control. This week’s obsessions are an elephant seal wobbling through suburban Cape Town, a zebra being airlifted over Tennessee (controversial, that one), an elephant crashing through a Thai grocery shop (favourite comment on IG, “god forbid a girl stops for a snack”) and an ‘emotional support kangaroo’ being banned from a flight (which turned out to be fake news).

My son’s godmother gave him this felt book and we are all obsessed. Particularly me. I find it very mindful putting felt eyebrows onto felt face, putting felt baby into felt mummy’s tummy, etc etc. A very good present, should you need one.

Sean Penn on The Louis Theroux podcast is the best celebrity interview I’ve listened to in ages. There is nothing he won’t answer. Do you know how rare that is? I wish I could tell you my experiences in that regard—but alas, I’d never get booked again.