Creating and Consuming
What I've been up to this month
It’s a festival-full month with Lunar New Year, the beginning of Ramadan, and (if you consider it so) Valentine’s Day. My biggest day of celebration and joy was the announcement of the Women’s Prize for Non Fiction longlist, which I’ve been joyfully reading books for over the last eight months.
I’m super proud of the range of books we have — from art and politics, to science and rediscovery — it’s honestly been the joy of my life to be a judge for the 2026 prize.
This month, I want to share three things with you
What I’ve been Creating
What I’ve been Consuming, and
A Character I admire
Here we go!
Creating
I’ve been making curtains (see previous posts) and have lots of scraps left over, so I found this great pattern to assemble into a pouf, which I’ve now added to my gorgeous office.
There are three sets of fabric included, one of which I used flipped over as well, and the whole thing is stuffed with — in my case — old, ripped bedsheets, pillows that are squashed out of shapes, and fabric cuttings that I can’t use for anything.
There’s something charming about it, knowing that I have used material from all over the house for different projects to make a new, useful footrest, and which is basically full of rubbish. I even inserted a zip at the base, which is not something I excel at, but then who cares? No one can see it. (Photo of this not included.)
Consuming
It’s been books books books! (Did I mention I’m judging another book prize?) The Women’s Prize for NF has a sixteen-strong longlist (link to see them all in my affiliate bookshop), and I certainly won’t be playing favourites! But let me tell you about some of them this month, specifically how I personally responded to them:
Photo from the Women’s Prize Trust: Nicola Walker, Roma Agrawal, Thangam Debonnaire, Nicola Elliot, Nina Stibbe
Finding Albion
Given the political climate, and the misuse of the St George’s Cross we’re seeing across England, this book gave me hope about a new way to British and proud. Zakia Sewell explores the history of Britain through folk customs — new and old — and what this means for forging community. These include the contribution of immigrants and people of colour, because we’ve always been here.
The Genius of Trees
We all know trees are important, that’s a given. But I learned a huge amount of new science from this book, about how trees are often designed and optimised for fire, the symbiosis with fungi, and why simply planting lots of trees in a place might not be as good for the environment as we think. It’s beautifully written and I appreciate trees even more than before.
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove
A gut-wrenching read, which highlights the brutal application of China’s one-child policy. The story is told through the lens of a separated pair of twins. We are taken on a geographic and historic tour of regions of China and the USA, which made me contemplate the cost of such population control measures.
To Exist as I am
I remember reading about the incident at Westfield shopping mall in London which led to the author Grace Spence becoming disabled. In this book, she tells of her accident as a young medical student, and how that has irrevocably changed her life. As an advocate for disability rights, access, and understanding, my eyes were opened to the experience of so many in our society who are othered because of the way their bodies function.
I’ll cover four more next month! Which will get me through them all before the winner is announced in June…
Character
It’s all Ethel Sargant this month! Comedian, physicist, songstress and musical writer Helen Arney introduced me to this incredible woman who was a botanist, and the best kind of difficult, opinionated woman. I’ll let you read Helen’s piece!
Ethel Sargant under the microscope.
And that’s all for this month, folks!
As always, if you can share this with even one friend, that will truly support my work.