Marginalia: I Spent Three Nights Away From My Kids. This Is What I Read.
My favourite writer I hadn't read yet and other outlandish pleasures. Plus, a few things on my To Be Read list & a giveaway.
Welcome to Marginalia — my ‘from the front-line-of-motherhood’ round-up of the very best things I have been trying to read whilst looking after my two young sons, which is available to all of my paid subscribers.
My signature Crib Notes newsletter, featuring succinct book reviews for new, busy and knackered parents, is free to all subscribers.
Read the most recent issues here:
You might remember back in September when I spent my first ever night away from my children (and read Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo)?
Well, a few weeks ago I spent three nights away from home — my longest stretch apart from my little family in six and a half years of motherhood. My mum and I travelled to the Lake District to visit a relative who lives locally. Once there, we did not very much. We swam, cooked nourishing meals for ourselves and spent our evenings reading and bathing. We visited the gardens at Sizergh Castle, and the impressively well-stocked Daisyroots second-hand bookshop in Grange-Over-Sands, where I found a beautiful Folio edition of Cranford by my beloved, Elizabeth Gaskell. I ran 10km in the rain along the coast and spent an afternoon writing.
It felt like an outlandish pleasure simply having time that was my own. My days and evenings — running, swimming, reading, writing, sleeping, bathing or simply doing nothing (!) — were not compressed or bookended by tending to the wants and needs of children. The train journey there and back was not without delays, but it was thrilling not spending those hours frantically keeping small people occupied, fed, contained in their seats and communicating at a reasonably socially acceptable volume.
I felt fulfilled by those three days. Afterwards, I looked forward to seeing my beautiful little boys, with my maternal batteries fully recharged.
You’ll be unsurprised to learn that reading was a big part of my time away. Here are the books I read.
My Favourite Writer I Hadn’t Read Yet
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Crib Notes to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.