Hot Poet Summer

Summer Loving

Well hello there. We've just had the longest day of the year, which you could either take to mean from hereon in the days are getting shorter and we've got 6 months of darkness slowly encroaching on all of our lives OR you could take it to mean we're in a season of light, and it's time to make hay while the sun shines, and by hay I mean poems, or perhaps memories of coming to see your favourite mathsy flamingo-befriending poet, or something. Last week I got to go to Glastonbury (more on that below), and last night I performed as an after dinner speaker at a Maths Education conference, which I imagine is the closest I get to feeling like Paul McCartney stepping out on the pyramid stage (for now). I've got a brand new poem about wellies which feel exciting, and having done previews of my Edinburgh show in Margate and Maidenhead I can confirm that it's a very fun time indeed. Alongside that is the heady thrill of satisfying admin that comes with lining up schools visits with my autumn tour dates, and the fact that this month I'm taking my first week off since January! 

Haz-tonbury

What a time to be alive. After initially feeling completely overwhelmed by being around that many people I had the absolute bestest time. Kendrick blew my mind, and I left Paul McCartney 20 minutes in to go and see Megan Thee Stallion - I regret nothing. As well as finally getting to see people I'd been excited about for a long time such as Sigrid and Little Simz, the joy of a festival is the unexpected, be it an 8-piece brass band playing absolute bangers alongside a giant neon unicorn dancer at 1am in the morning, or the fact that I now have a favourite Norwegian lesbian emo band. Thanks to everyone who came to my sets, I'm hoping there was enough of you that they'll invite me back - I was genuinely touched by how many friends or friends-of-friends or daughters-of-friends-of-parents came along, and one of the things I've missed about festivals is performing to complete strangers who don't know what to expect, with the added excitement/pressure that they could just get up and walk out at any point. For those that did find themselves there by accident I can only hope I was your unexpected giant neon unicorn.

This image feels only right for the various water-based gigs I have this month!

Let The Fest(ival)ivities Continue!

The big upcoming festival is of course the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where I'm hoping many people will accidentally find themselves in the basement of a Vodka Revolution Bar at midday and be pleasantly surprised by what they find. While I'm mostly spending this month prepping/gearing up for that, I am squeezing in a couple of other festival moments in before then, starting with Ledbury Poetry Festival on the 7th, followed by a Northumbrian Water Festival (!) and then celebrating the water of life (!!) at New Wine both weeks that it's on. I had to miss performing at the big church day out because of Covid so hopefully making up for it with a big church night in (a field in Peterborough). I'm as excited about the gig as sleeping in my new fancy pop-up tent again.

After last night 12 maths teachers immediately booked to see me in Halifax, so I am now disproportianately looking forward to that gig on tour...

Tour Update

I can now confirm almost all tour dates are now on sale, and not only that but since the poster went live we have added a Leeds date on Feb 9th as well! (Sheffield pending but looking hopeful) -  Thanks everyone who has bought tickets already, I know it's a fair way away but it makes a massive difference for my nerves in general, and especially if you or anyone you know is in London I've ambitiously booked a 500-seater venue (!) for a joint gig with Chris that is looking like it will be my official book launch too, so if you/499 of your friends wanted to come to that one especially, it would be much appreciated (but frankly wherever you appear i'll be delighted to have you)! 

For anyone questioning my range it turns out I can rock a tractor AND a flamingo..

Any Other Business

I went to an open farm day and sat on a tractor and had some delicious apple juice. I've also been playing lots of spikeball. I'm currently reading The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin and I'm currently watching Ms Marvel and both are excellent. This morning I had a meeting with my brother looking at designs for the book and it's feeling very exciting and real (and a bit terrifying but that's part of the fun). I'm sleep-tired but not life-tired and that's definitely my preferred way round. This week Grace was talking to a friend about trying to be a blessing to her local community and they asked her how she was being a blessing to herself, and I've been trying to reflect on that too. I think it currently involves running around on the beach hitting a tiny ball off a trampoline, and next week hopefully switching off from everything and floating in a river for a bit. I hope that you find a way of being a blessing to yourself this month too, let's celebrate these long days of light while we can x