Stress and Recovery

On having a break before you break.

Hey friends.

Firstly a massive thank you to Grace for stepping in last month, which based on the response was the most popular newsletter I have ever had and perhaps could and should become a regular feature!

About two months ago a lovely personal trainer by the name of Stuart reached out on Instagram, who said he specialises in (among over things) helping new parents and recovering stroke victims to get and stay fit (I don’t think the two are linked but I haven’t asked). I know at this point most of you are thinking, but Harry, looking at you we assumed you’d had multiple personal trainers for YEARS, or maybe perhaps were a personal trainer yourself in-between the poems. Alas no, it’s been all me until this point. In general I have had less time to look after myself since we had a baby (who knew!) so was very glad to accept some help and in return offered tickets to my Bristol show where he bought a copy of my latest book.

It was only afterwards that I realised the introduction to the book details a ridiculous new years resolution, where I would go for a 5k run on the first week of the year and add a kilometre each week until by the end of the year I would be be running 57km(!). (Spoiler alert, I didn’t achieve this, but it did inspire a poem the following January on setting more achievable new year’s resolutions such as deciding what my favourite shape is and having an amazing hair day.)

Naturally, this was an entertaining read to somebody with a degree in sports science. He gently suggested that the way our muscles grow is through stress and recovery, so that if we never push our body it’s not going to magically improve, but equally if we constantly push it with no chance to recover, there is no chance to grow stronger either, and before you know it you’re hiring a mobility scooter to explore a garden centre because it’s too painful to walk. (Okay fine I may have added the last bit.)

I thought this sounded like a pretty good metaphor for life, that I will be stretching to its limit throughout this newsletter, but also crucially leaving enough time for us all to recover afterwards. Thanks for being here!

Final Stretch of Tour!

Part of the stress and recovery of my tour planning means that I have been doing a couple of shows a week and coming back in-between to stock up on books hang out with my lovely family, meaning that I’ve got enough energy to fully love the shows while they are happening, rather than burning myself out. The flipside of this is that I have technically been on tour since February (!) and have only now got to the point where the remaining dates fit on one image. This week I have the biggest and smallest shows of the tour in Chester and Darlington, and then finally making it to Scotland before popping by York on the way down. Also sneak peak ahead to next month if you wanted to come and see me in Leicester, Norwich, or London in July - London in particular I am hoping to have filmed and it will look a lot cooler if you in particular are there (yes you!). In the spirit of recovery after this I am doing NO GIGS FOR AGES. I have lined up some Christmas shows in December but other than that (and maybe the occasional one-off in-between) I am back on paternity leave to let my little poetry muscles grow ahead of next year when I will be touring the new book! Speaking of which..

Cover Reveal!

Just kidding, this is a Tesco advert. My new book Tender is coming out in March next year, which sadly means there isn’t an April Fool’s Day in-between now and then for me to make this hilarious joke so here we are instead. I have seen a sneak peek of the cover and it’s even better than this if you can imagine such a thing, so I can’t wait to share it with you once that’s a thing that I am allowed/encouraged to do.

Part of the reason why Grace took over last month’s newsletter is because I have been powering on with it and I now officially have 100 poems to go in! I have been loving sharing some of these on tour and seeing the response they get (my favourite so far being We’re child-hating atheists and even we thought they were quite sweet), and after the stress of trying to actually get that many poems finished, being able to sit with them long enough to hone and tweak as I go. I am currently on a mission to shamelessly force my way into the Sunday Times Bestseller list with a year’s worth of pre-orders counting towards the first week, so if you would like to assist with that you can do so here.

The End Of An Era/Season

This week marked the final recording of this season of my podcast Something Borrowed in Margate with none other than the legendary Lemn Sissay. If I’m being honest writing my book and being on tour has been full on, but I wouldn’t describe them as stresses because they are pretty much my favourite things to do and I feel so incredibly grateful to be able to make a living and a life from doing it. While I also love putting on a monthly night in Margate, the combination of it being much harder to sell tickets, as well as hosting the open mic and interviewing some of my favourite poets in the world and wanting to do it justice/pay them properly means I spend quite a lot of the month worrying about how it is going to go, and a couple of months ago considered stopping it altogether.

This week’s reminded me just how much of a good thing it is. As well as getting to chat to one of my all-time poetry heroes, the incredible open mic-ers and the sense of community around it is something I’m so genuinely proud of and is absolutely worth all the work it takes. I also know that by pushing my comfort zone I am growing as a host/performer/interviewer through it. That being said, for the sake of me being able to enjoy the summer and not break my little poetry legs by running too far too soon I will be pausing until the autumn to reassess and recover. The good news is that there are 5 episodes still to come out between now and then to get your fix. You can listen to Rob Auton’s episode now and hit subscribe just in time for Vanessa Kisuule’s episode to drop on Wednesday.

Thanks for reading this far! Keep an eye out for my Songs of Praise episode coming out on Father’s Day, and I will hopefully see you at a gig if you can make it, or will keep posting clips online for anyone who can’t. Until next time, stay brilliant x

(P.S. I can now hold my baby without putting my back out/generally feel better than I have in a long time would fully recommend Stuart if that’s the kind of thing you are into!)