The Return

Well, that all went a little weird, didn't it?!

It's been a very strange few weeks - well, a quarter of the sodding year now - and for me and, I suspect, many of you, it's been a time of reflection. And quite a long time of reflection in fact when your main sources of income are restaurants and travel writing. Ahem. Note to self: when this is over, diversify... 

Quite what the landscape will look like when all this is over is mystery, of course. While I could write reams on the incompetence of our government (and frequently do elsewhere, so yeah, apologies to all who followed me on Twitter expecting travel, food and terrible puns), that's a subject for another post or perhaps a whole new blog. Or, in the short term, just screams of pure rage into a pillow. It's going to be "interesting times" as  - perhaps appropriately enough - that old Chinese curse has it but, thanks to some great people I know, and some regular synapse-firing Zoom chats, there are already ideas and projects bubbling. But, you know, writing has long been the thing that most fills me with joy. 

Over the last few weeks though, I've been looking back over old things I wrote and wondering where that person went. Just before all of "this" happened, I had a commission from Sainsbury's to write 1200 words on Borough Market. It's a place I love, a place I know well, a place I've worked, a place that's probably taken about 60% of my income over the last 15+ years, a place that's almost certainly responsible for much of my excess poundage... And it took me about ten days to write it. Twenty years ago, at my first professional writing gig - I was assistant editor of a great little London listings magazine called Footloose - I was churning out 5000, 6000+ words of copy every week, 50 weeks of the year. Over the last few weeks, I've dug out much of that back catalogue and while some of it is, inevitably, "jobbing quality", a lot of it has an energy and personality that I can't help but think I've lost. It's the same with the early days of blogging (and, for the record, all of that is still up at The Lambshank Redemption). The method in that madness was to be able to ramble on about food, a subject close to - if not fattily encasing - my heart at a time I was writing mostly showbiz gossip and listicles about "ten hot brunettes" for a tabloid website. One was about paying bills, one was very much for fun but, perhaps, who knows, maybe I could turn the fun bit into at least part of a career... and I really couldn't have begun to imagine how that was going to turn out because the last decade has very often been the stuff of dreams. 

I must stress, I still adore what I do, unequivocally, and utterly, adore. As I tell people frequently, if I ever appear to be taking it for granted, slap me. Have a run up and slap me. Have a run up over carpet in slippers and slap me, because I don't deserve to hear it coming. The opportunities I've had, the places I've been, the people I've met, the things I've eaten... it's been a hell of a ride and, when the world flips back that way, I'm hoping it continues for another 10, 20 years. (I'm not going to do the humble brag thing but, should you want to see some of the that head here.) But there was a freedom to much of my early writing that I'd really like to rediscover and that, dear reader (or "mum" as you're probably also known) is the reason for this new venture. 

What it really comes down to is just use that muscle. When you've got two weeks to write a piece, you'll take all the available time, overthink it considerably and have. To. Force. Out. Words. At. A. Snail's. Pace. When you've got two hours to turn that 20 minute interview into 1500 words, you don't have time for coffee, let alone overthinking. My mission is to get back to that carefree place and, as a good friend and I have long described it, "sweary Nike it" or, if you prefer, "just fucking do it". 

So what does that mean? Well, there's going to be food. Lots of food. Obviously. But there are a couple of other ideas I want to explore, strands I want to develop, subjects I've not written about for too long, such as music and film and, particularly, overlooked gems in those fields. There will be things from the archives (or, to be more accurate, the clippings books and plastic box of old magazines under the desk), shameless plugs for whatever else I'm doing, maybe interviews with interesting people, probably the odd rant and, because it's me, lots and lots of tangents...