Five Fine Things on a Thursday...

* me inflicting my taste on you, dear reader

Photo credit: Kaysar Miah, 2023. At Bateman’s ‘jingo imperialist’ Rudyard Kipling’s former home, shading my eyes from golden hour.

1. Watching! almost solely films of the silver-screen, golden era of Hollywoo! I’m actually finding I have very little interest in watching anything that was made after 1967 at present! And while some/many of these films are problematic in terms of racial and gender equality and representation I am finding something immeasurably comforting in watching (largely) monochrome, old-time-y, beautifully lit (all those glorious shadows!), melodramatically-acted, CGI-free stuff. I like how ‘see’ is used to punctuate sentences in these films, a kind of ‘exclamation’ rather than ‘verb’, (examples: I love you, see. She was my number one, gal, see. We need to get that copy off for five pm, see. Get me a martini, see, and so on). I like how paradoxically heightened yet still somehow lacking in seriousness so many of the plots points are. I like watching something for 90 mins to two hours straight that has no product placement and where technological references are minimal, (a train, a typewriter, a rotary phone is about as sophisticated as it gets). I like the screwball wit and playfulness. I adore the facial dexterity of Jack Lemon, the suaveness of Cary Grant, the sheer talent of Shirley MacLaine, the immaculate style of Rosalind Russell and Grace Kelly. I’ve been watching a lot but my recent favourites in no particular order have been The Apartment, The Odd Couple (getting modern, it’s in colour!), The Night of the Hunter, His Girl Friday and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

2. Visiting! Bateman’s House aka former home of Jungle Book author Rudyard Kipling. This is a National Trust owned-house located in the verdant East Sussex countryside, it’s a Jacobean beauty, all dark wood-panelled walls inside, with grander rooms alongside, my preferred, nooks and crannies, and complete the most spacious and glorious writing room, (what writer could possibly have something like this these days it made me wonder?). I am of the opinion that Kipling’s political views were vile, he was to quote George Orwell a ‘jingo imperialist’. (Here’s an excellent essay by Orwell that goes into more depth on that famous quote.) And this is in some ways reflected in his home, a baby polar-bear rug lies on the floor in the writing room and references to one of Kiplin'g’s closest friends and confidants as ‘a committed imperialist’ struck me as an interesting phrasing. (I think because the word committed usually stands next to something positive i.e. he was a committed husband and father etc.). So in a way it did feel different visiting this house as opposed to other NT houses I’ve enjoyed over the years such as Vanessa Bell and Duncan Fry’s Charleston, Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Monk’s House or Vita Sackville West’s Sissinghurst, all of whom were occupants I admire the politics of, however, it was still a lovely house to behold and of course to imagine oneself living in, which is what I always like to do when I visit such places. Interested in the National Trust in general? Check out fellow Substacker Kim Stallwood’s piece on the upcoming NT members vote here.

3. Requesting! your support in the form of recommending this Substack to your friends. Easy to do using the ‘share’ button as below, or the ‘refer a friend’ button even more below. You will be rewarded if you do so and will have my eternal gratitude (more details on this here).

4. Revelling! in Autumn. I bloody well love this season. I know that’s not an original sentiment, Keats’ wrote a whole Ode to this time of year and as Camus said, ‘autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower’. And yes I love the leaves, but I also love the weird gourds in abundance, the cosy-factor, the constant hot-chocolate drinking, the light, the mists, the build up to Samhain/Halloween, and also this very rude 2009 comic essay from McSweeney’s that does the rounds every year this time of year. (Do not click the link if swearing offends you.)

5. Perusing! the wonderful Austin Kleon’s 10 things worth sharing this week which I always enjoy and which in part inspired me to start this Five Fine Things on a Thursday section. So basically number five is a list recommending another list, but as The Darkness frontman and superb podcaster, Justin Hawkins, stated recently ‘isn’t the internet just one big list?’ (More on JH’s podcast here.)

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Thank you for reading, and if you like this newsletter then please do forward, like, share, comment or, if you can afford it consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. My recent book recommendations are here and a less-recent piece about my love of crypts is here because, well, All Hallow’s Eve is nigh!

Finally, I would LOVE to hear of your own recent ‘fine things’ too, so as it it says below ‘Leave a comment’….

Love,

Emma x o x o