The Good Stuff 4: Sylvia's Second Act, the 'unexpected red theory', marriage and money
Plus: the pure joy of Only Murders in the Building, the rise of the trad wife, real skin, decorating mistakes, bargain homeware finds
Fare thee well February. You were, for the most part, exceedingly wet and relentlessly grey. For one thing we can thank you: there was very little compulsion to be wildly social. Bring on the month of tulips, lighter evenings, and - may it please the gods - sunshine.
The up side of grey days is that anything other than settling down with a book seemed, quite frankly, bonkers. And I gorged myself on some absolute corkers. (Some of which you’ll find reviewed here.) Most recently the novels by masters (mistresses sounds wrong, somehow?) of their trade: Catherine Newman (Sandwich -published in June), Paige Toon (Seven Summers - published 28 March) and Marian Keyes (My Favourite Mistake - 11 April). In between, I am re-reading - slow reading - Middlemarch. Thus far, I am finding more sly humour in it than I did in my teens, and rather than feeling sorry for Dorothea, I wince at the naive idealism which will lead her into marriage with creepy Casaubon. I also note that Dorothea’s sister is far more sensible tha I realised.
However, today’s panacea for a grey day is Sylvia’s Second Act, which is a HOOT and had me at hello. Or, more accurately, when Sylvia walks in on her husband Louis in flagrante with Belinda, the resident sex pot of the Florida retirement community to which Sylvia moved under duress.