Hi guys!

Happy 2025. It’s the middle of Aussie summer and if you’re looking for me, I’ll be editing my novel, hanging out with my kids, ocean swimming whenever I can, and continuing my endeavours to become a morning person (with mixed success). To this end, I’m having foot surgery in a couple of weeks. My endless foot troubles seem to be attributable to my bunion (the GLAMOUR!) and its adjacent lesser-known friend (my hammer toe) so I’m hopeful that after a few weeks in a moon boot I’ll be striding the beach paths with my dog again in no time. 

Today, I’m off to the Gold Coast with my kids for a week. I really should be editing but I left the book at home because what I need even more is some beach time and a moment to unwind with the kids. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I urge you to remember that pretty much everything can wait. If you have an opportunity to switch off and be with your loved ones - this is your signal from the universe to do it. 

This feels like a good time to mention the L.A. fires, which continue to burn as I write this. I have many beloved friends in L.A. and have spent a lot of time there, and even so it is hard to wrap my mind around the level of devastation caused by these fires. If anyone is feeling powerless and would like to help, I’d recommend the following places to donate (which I took from the trusted source Shit You Should Care About!)

• Emergency Resource Guide

• MALAN Fire & Wind Storm Resources

• LA Fire Mutual Aid Resource Hub

• Displaced Black Families GoFundMe Directory

• Support The Music Community

• Help Victims of the Los Angeles Wildfires

• How To Give, Volunteer, And Help

• “Where Physical Donations Are Being Accepted”

• IN PERSON Volunteer Opps

Below you’ll find a list of recommendations. If you’ve got any of your own, get in touch! I’ll be needing some while I recuperate from surgery in Feb.

Sally x

One Dark Night by Hannah Richell

Everyone in the small town of Thorncombe UK knows the tales of the haunted woods where the birds don’t sing and a girl in a white dress roams, luring people to their deaths. But when a girl in white is found dead the morning after Halloween, her body carefully arranged at the bottom of an old stone folly, the community is thrown into turmoil. A big old private school sits at the entrance to the woods, where a divorced teacher (who used to be married to the local detective), finds her teenage daughter is caught up in the whole mess. Thrilling and page-turning! Buy here.

Meditation for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

I always thought books about meditation would be boring as anything, but this one had be riveted and fascinating over the summer. The author draws on ideas from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, with practical tools for embracing life more fully and meeting the challenges that come our way. Buy here.

The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins

I’d heard a bit about the “let them” theory, and a friend recommended I delve deeper. And boy am I glad I did! The basic premise is this: a lot of the tension and challenges we face are because we’re giving our power to other people, trying to control everything around us. What if the key to happiness, love and success was in two little words?  Let them judge, let them make mistakes, let them behave that way. Let it all fall away and take back your own life. (Can you tell I’m in my post-divorce era?!) Buy here.

Rivals (Disney+)

Rivals is a bloody fun romp of a show set in the south of England in the 80s, an era or excess where everyone drinks a lot, bonks a lot, and lives in big castle-type houses with tennis courts and private woodland. A celebrated TV journalist takes a new gig to host his own show, has a tyrant of a boss, and holds a grudge against a local old-money MP famous for bedding women and drinking all day. Everyone is rivalling each other in work and play, sleeping with each other’s wives and husbands, and like I said, it is just FUN, silly viewing, with some depth. The fashion, the music, I loved it. It’s based on a Jilly Cooper novel from the 80s. 

Bad Sisters season 2 (Apple TV)

If you’ve been a subscriber for a while, you might remember how obsessed I was with the first season of Bad Sisters, an Irish show on Apple TV. Well, the sisters are back for a second season and it’s just as amazing. Funny, dark, clever. The five sisters continue to get embroiled in murder and mayhem. I hope it gets renewed for a third season!