Stop, Look, Listen: 3 current obsessions – February 2023

I thought I should resurrect this feature – Stop, Look, Listen – sharing three things I’m currently obsessed with. Stop might be a new interiors launch that has stopped me in my tracks, Look might be a new book I couldn’t put down or an exhibition I enjoyed, and Listen might be a podcast, TV recommendation or event that I think you’d like to know about too.

STOP
I seem to have been seduced by the trends for checks. If you’re a long time follower you’ll know my love for stripes, so this doesn’t feel too far away from my comfort zone. Like the clean lines of classic striped designs, checked patterns have a sense of uniformity and repetition that feels comforting and familiar. They may remind us of picnic blankets or school uniforms, but maybe that’s part of the appeal – the feeling of nostalgia. While I won’t be dressing my home in pink gingham any time soon, I could certainly see something like this crinkled cotton throw making it’s way onto my sofa.

ANYDAY Gingham check throw, £30, John Lewis & Partners

LOOK
I’ve just finished The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan and gave it 5/5 stars on Goodreads. I hardly ever cry when reading books but this one really got me good. Probably because I’m the same age as the protagonist and a mother too. The School for Good Mothers is a fictional dystopian novel about a tired, overwrought mother called Frida who has to pay for one bad day, when she walked out of the house and left her toddler daughter Harriet alone. The state sends her to a new school for a year, where mothers from across the US are ‘re-educated’ on how to become the perfect mother. Some are there due to tiniest of mistakes or faux-pas, such as one mother complaining about her child too much on Twitter. What emerges is a Handmaid’s Tale-like world where each mother has to fight for survival.

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan, published by Penguin Random House UK

LISTEN
A year late to the party, I’ve become obsessed (OBSESSED!) with the TV series Slow Horses. So much so that I carried on watching the second series without my husband when he went away this weekend, oops, don’t tell him!  I couldn’t resist. It’s a fast paced drama that follows a group of misfit MI5 agents who have been exiled to an office called Slough House after each messed up their jobs in one way or another. MI5 can’t let them go, but they can’t be trusted either. The ‘slow horses’ are meant to be doing menial office work but of course they can’t help but get stuck into the bigger issues tormenting the intelligence service. It’s got a stellar cast, including Gary Oldman and Kristen Scott Thomas, who have some show stealing scenes together, pairing the bitter, obnoxious Jackson Lamb who leads the slow horses, with the impeccable, unwavering Deputy Director-General of MI5, Diana Taverner. Apparently there’s a Season 3 and Season 4 coming, so that’s something to look forward to!

Watch Slow Horses on Apple TV