#87 A Slow Sunday Scroll ☕️
london recs • 2026 book events • what I'm reading
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I’m having a renewed love affair with London—which is fortunate, since I live here. For months (years, perhaps?) I barely ventured into the buzzier parts of the city, sticking instead to the familiar boundaries of my own postcode: the local shops, parks, and quiet leafy streets. After burning out a few years ago, I started declining almost anything that resembled a party or event. I retreated into my lovely my little corner of London—the coffee spots, the indie bookshop, the cafés, the post office, the walks, the tucked-away cocktail bars hidden beneath railway arches. I think people often imagine London as just roaring motorbikes and crowds jostling through Piccadilly Circus—but I hear the birds most mornings from bed and hardly any cars drive past my house. My garden is full of trees and cats and foxes and squirrels and parakeets.
But now I’m itching to roam the busy parts of London again. Maybe it’s leftover excitement from my trip to NYC last month. Lately, I’ve been taking myself on plenty of ‘Artist Date’ outings around the city.
A long browsing session in the big Foyles on Charing Cross Road, followed by stationery shop Choosing Keeping. Also: London Review of Books—and the stationery shop Present & Correct next door (and the Fossil shop, a stone’s throw away on Museum St.)
A lovely pot of tea and a good book in the Covent Garden Hotel, or catching up with a friend at Monmouth Kitchen.
My dentist is in Marylebone and I love a browse around there afterwards. (Daunt Books and Sézane etc.)
Breakfast with friends at various branches of Dishoom.
Finding indie witchy bookshops. Especially Cecil Court. I bought a Meryl Streep themed tarot deck.
Going to the cinema in the middle of the day. (Including an early screening for H is for Hawk—the film adaptation of the bestselling memoir by Helen Macdonald (and I listened to their Desert Island Discs on the walk home.)
An evening art/book launch with drinks and good conversation at The Stash Gallery to celebrate
.
TLDR; I’m enjoying hitting the busy streets again. I’m having meetings again, enjoying the city again. Wearing my heeled boots again. My current vibe: Invite me to some stuff!
I had a tarot reading with my friend Katy the other day, and my cards showed that I am definitely wanting some more adventure. “No hermit card. Interesting,” she said. (It has turned into a joke in our group chat that I always get the Hermit card.) The Hermit appears to have gone.
(Katy texted me afterwards to say she pulled a bonus card for me. It was…..The HERMIT card. I took this as a funny little reminder that a hermit lives inside me and always will, and I can hermit whenever I feel like it, in amongst the madness of city life.)
On the London theme! I’ve put together a big juicy guide of all my favourite places—in case you want any of my personal recommendations, whether you’re visiting the city or want some inspiration: ⤵
Also! I did an event recently with my new publishing partners at Whitefox Publishing called ‘re-writing the rules of publishing’—and they filmed the event and put it on YouTube! If you missed out on the event and want to listen: the link is here! Thanks again to
at The Bookseller for asking such good questions.
Something fun for your 2026 diary!
I’m doing some book events in Jan/Feb! ✨
I’m doing a London event to celebrate the publication of A Year of Nothing as part of ‘Lit Nights’ at Braithwaite Hall *here*—in conversation with . See you there?
Tickets are on sale now.
(Tickets coming soon for events at Backstory in Barcelona and The Observer Book Club in London.)
Slow Sunday Scroll Picks
The best things I’m reading, listening to, watching, including lots of cultural things that have inspired me—this section is below the paywall as it takes a lot of effort for me to compile these! Thank you for your support and I hope you enjoy xoxo
