My dear Dear Reader - I come to apologise. First of all, the Cup of Coffee crew have been so loyal and so generous and so supportive, and I have repaid you by over-promising and under-delivering, my least favourite combination. I really, really wanted to do the Something Beautiful Every Day idea and it turned out to be too much, and instead of just pitching up and merrily saying we would move on to Plan B, I stuck my head in the sand.
Shocking behaviour.
I’m back to say sorry, and to start again. Those of you who have been with me for a while know how much I love starting again.
There can’t possibly be something every day. I’m not sure what I was thinking about. But I would like to send you something useful and charming and delightful and generally cheering, on the regular.
I’m not sure yet what form this will take. It might be totally ad hoc, and we’ll just see where we are.
For instance, right now, I want to urge you all to read Jane Austen and, if you are in Blighty, to watch the documentary on her which is on the BBC iPlayer. Why? Well, for the pure pleasure of all of it. The singing pleasure of her prose and her characters and her jokes and her storytelling, and the deeper, humming pleasure of watching people who love her talk about her.
I have a friend with whom I speak about Jane all the time, as if she is the third wheel in our friendship.
That, too, is a keen pleasure.
I’m looking out of the window now and everything is very quiet and very green. I feel grateful for the greenness.
Oh, and I am, for no known reason, reading the entire works of Shakespeare between now and Christmas. I’ve worked out the days and the pages on my calculator. I shall finish on December 21st, and I shall have an enormous glass of champagne.
Why? Nobody knows. Except that I want to stuff my brain with beauty.
Thank you for being so lovely and so patient and so good.
I will not disappear for so long again.