It's terribly dull being busy, isn't it?
A new tour announcement and a new mailing list provider!
Hello friends, and welcome to the same old well loved newsletter coming from a slightly different place. I hope it made it to your inbox okay. I had an absolute dream gig last Friday night. It was at a church in Woking where my friend Lucy is the curate and they made it free entry with optional donations so it was accessible to all, there were custom cocktails based on my poems (including my favourite drink Schöfferhofer), and a man appeared to have a stroke in the front row just at the emotional climax of one of the poems (that wasn’t the dream part, but I have since been informed he is okay!) - It was one of the first gigs where I noticed people coming along because they have discovered me on Tiktok, and there was a general vibe of I can’t believe your performing in Woking to which my response now is I can’t believe I would ever perform anywhere else!
It was also a weekend of hanging out in some woodlands, running in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and the kind of soul nourishment that comes from hanging out with old friends. As we caught up post-gig, Lucy made the above comment and it articulated something I’ve been feeling for the last few weeks. I’m in the process of sending off the final draft of my book (!), lining up my upcoming tour (!!) and yesterday being World Book Day means I’ve been in a different school every day this week. All of these are things that I love and am unbelievably excited about, but the fact that they are all happening at the same time means I’ve got to the stage where I’m not fully appreciating them and things like replying to friends on whatsapp or working out what to do for my birthday have almost become items to be ticked off a to do list rather than fun acts to enjoy in and of themselves. All of this is to say I’m giving myself a gentle reminder that life is for living, and I’ve carved out some time to enjoy writing this properly rather than just rushing to tell you about my upcoming tour dates. Speaking of which…
I am going on tour!
Longer-term subscribers will know that even though it’s literally my favourite thing to do in the world, when I finished my last tour I decided not to go straight back into it because I wanted to have a life wait until I had a show worth touring and I’m thrilled to announce that is now the case. I’m so excited to share this new work with you, I did a headline slot in Liverpool last night and half of the poems I performed didn’t exist 6 months ago which is a lovely feeling! It is slightly terrifying having over 5000 tickets go on sale at once so if you wanted to buy tickets early to help calm my nerves you would be my favourite people and you can do that here. Particular shout outs go to my first ever time performing in Dublin, as well as attempting to fill multiple dates in Bristol, Leeds, Margate and Norwich. If you are Scottish and rightly feeling left out of this I try to explain here that I will come back!
Podcast News
Due to the aforementioned dullness busyness I currently have two episodes of Something Borrowed still to edit with the glorious Raymond Antrobus and Georgie Jones, which I will have as a treat for you ready for next month’s edition. In the meantime I do have a link to the podcast I referenced in my last newsletter where I talk to Caitlyn O’Ryan about everything from Mr Kipling to my falafel marathon adventures to whether I do in fact have my sh*t together. (spoiler alert: I think so?)
Other News
The book is coming along nicely, thanks for asking. The above picture is my writing out a list of things that bring me joy from a poem I wrote for advent a few years ago, with a view of slotting them in-between poems as little mini joyful interludes. I had a gloriously on-brand gig at Bletchley Park this month in my role as Poet Laureate for the National Cipher Challenge, a codebreaking competition for teenagers around the country, alongside the legendary Marcus Du Sautoy. I’m also continuing my reputation as the badboy of the spoken word poetry scene by being booked on to a speed awareness course at the end of the month, so I solemnly vow to have done enough interesting things between now and next newsletter so that doesn’t have to feature. In case you are wondering the birthday plan is to get a takeaway and play some games, I’m off to take the time to whatsapp some friends and invite them now.
Stay brilliant x
Recommendations
To celebrate being on Substack rather than Mailchimp and being able to do strikethroughs wanting to explore what is possible I am introducing a new bonus section of things I have been enjoying:
Something To Listen To
I used to listen to a lot more hip hop and rap but have more recently being going through a more pop-py phase. Listening to Ghetts new album however was a throwback to the kind of lyricism and punchlines that made me fall in love with writing in the first place as a teenager and Double Standards Ft Sampha is an absolute stunner.
Something To Read
Marcus Du Sautoy’s talk at Bletchley park was based on his latest book Around The World In 80 Games, which I am halfway through. It’s a wonderful mix of history and game theory and philosophy, and covers everything form the origins of Chess and Snakes and Ladders to the maths of one of my all-time faves, Perudo.
Something To Watch
My current happy place while everything feels a bit hectic is to curl up on the sofa with Grace and watch The Great Pottery Throwdown. It is possibly the most wholesome program I have ever seen and it’s essentially lovely people making lovely pots and occasionally having a good old cry about it. It’s the final this weekend and we will of course be rooting for Donna.
That’s all folks! I think with Substack you can leave comments which i’m excited about, so please do let me know anything good you have read/watched/listened to, or if you’re going to be at any tour dates, or any general feedback about the new format!
Hi Harry - welcome to Substack. The wonderful Grace directed me here X
Love it Harry!