Physically Broken, but Lyrically Awoken

It Only Shows Up When It Starts To Heal

Hello friends. As you may well be aware, over the years I have run a few marathons, often in ridiculous costumes, often with very little training, the latest being dressed as falafel-spoon that led to me ending Chris Evan's Career. This year I was doing things differently. I ran 5k the first week of the year and my New Year's Resolution was to add a kilometre each week and see how far I could get. This was particularly fun on our Interrail trip earlier this year finding new routes in exciting places and showing off to all three of my friends on Strava. I signed up for a local marathon the last week of September because that was when I was due to be doing 42k anyway, and had even signed up for an ultra-marathon in November. It turn out while my body is good at running marathons with very little prep, building up slowly was far too sensible for my silly silly shins and so after 39k (or maybe the cumulative 748k was the problem) I found I couldn't put weight on it and have been using crutches ever since. When I went for an X-Ray the next day they said it might be a stress fracture but wouldn't be able to tell at this stage because It only shows up when it starts to heal. At which point I immediately texted Chris and said that feels like it could be a good metaphor for something, or at least the title of my next newsletter, and here we are. I hope it was worth it. Speaking of showing up, here are some things I have coming up that you can hopefully show up to (and find healing?)!

We visited friends in Manchester who kindly found somewhere I could hire a mobility scooter for a day out and now I'm the self-appointed poster boy for the Royal Horticultural Society.

Something Borrowed, Something Viral? 

Thanks so much everyone who came along to Something Borrowed ft Chris Read last month, it was truly magic. If you missed it you can listen back here and in all the best podcast places, or watch the whole thing on youtube by clicking the video below. if you're too busy to watch a whole hour of fun but can spare 40 seconds you might enjoy this particular clip, which got lots of views on Instagram and Tiktok, the real reason any of us do anything these days. If all of this makes you want to get in on the live action in Margate then please do come along to October's edition one week today with the fantastic Neelam Saredia-Brayley - It's in 7 days and there are 7 tickets left so be sure to get in there while you can x

Thanks to the wonderful Dr Ed Hope for not only filming the whole thing, but also teaching me how to make a Youtube thumbnail to go with it.

Other Places To Show Up (And Heal)

I'm performing at Cheltenham Litfest tomorrow, and then it's a double Margate whammy with Something Borrowed next Wednesday followed by the Margate Bookie next Saturday at everyone's favourite performance time of 3:30pm. I think Worthing is pretty close to being sold out but there's still plenty of tickets for St Albans and Southampton, before coming home for a special performance at my local allotment's pumpkin party which i'm honestly so excited about.

Happy News

I got my Facebook back! Thanks to everyone who reported/noticed when I briefly became a sexy Spanish lady, and apologies to the thousand new followers I gained in the meantime who were perhaps hoping I would remain that way. This does mean all my posts ever got deleted in the process, but all the more reason for us to make new memories, and they'll never be able to infiltrate the newsletter! I think it will all end up in a poem at some point, but my favourite response so far has been Grace's boss seeing all of the not-so-subtle changes that had been made to my page and just assuming I was going undercover to try and support sex workers in the middle east, and to be honest I'm now a little disappointed in myself that that isn't the case.

Any Other Business

When I performed at Buckingham Litfest earlier in the year, I sat for a portrait painting earlier in the day with the Wonderful Peter Keegan, and I love what he came up with! Last week was National Poetry Day aka one year since my book came out so I have been doing lots of schools visits, as well as writing new poems about postcodes and death in my free time. Since the last newsletter I have also got a tattoo (!) which I won't share on here because It only shows up when it starts to heal, but if you'd like to see it I will be bringing it on tour with me. If you'd like to hear but not see me, next week (18th) I am doing the daily service on Radio 4 again, and they've even let me have a Stormzy song. I'm hoping to be back on my feet/foot soon, but I'm also making the most of the latest seasons of Sex Education and Lupin while I wait.

Stay brilliant x