A note from Skye
Hello!
If you read Mendy’s newsletter a couple of weeks ago, you’ll know we’ve decided to each send out a monthly update to our subscribers, which means every two weeks you’ll hear from one of us. We thought you might like to know a little bit more about us: what we’re talking about with friends and family and what we’re doing, watching, reading and listening to at the moment.
The news feels pretty grim at the moment and I am searching for moments of joy wherever I can. If you’re feeling that too, then please read on for some recent distractions and inspirations...
Fieldfare stuff
As you probably know, we published Issue 2 of Fieldfare in late May, and we recently signed on with a London-based distributor who will be working with a network of UK and international retailers to get Fieldfare into more bricks-and-mortar shops. We’ve had a great response so far — you can find an up-to-date list of stockists here.
This is really encouraging news for us as we work to make Fieldfare a sustainable business longer term. The flip side is that we won’t see any return on those copies until after our next issue goes on sale, which means a lag of about 6 months between when we publish and when we see any payment. This creates a challenge for us in terms of cash flow, so we will open for pre-orders for Issue 3 a little sooner than we did for Issue 2. As in all aspects of Fieldfare, we’re constantly learning what works best and tweaking what we do so we can keep on making the magazine and maintaining the highest possible production values.
There are definitely some challenges around print publishing right now that are affecting us — see this sad announcement from Storied magazine and this video from Ruth Ribeaucourt, editor-in-chief of Faire magazine, which explain some of these. In particular, the cost of paper has risen sharply and fuel costs are making everything in supply chains more expensive at the moment.
What that means for us is that pre-orders will (as always) be very important, because we don’t want to print too many copies and waste scarce resources, but equally it makes us want to only publish the best quality images and stories — things that really deserve to be printed.
Reading
I’d like to put something super highbrow here, but let’s keep it real. I’ve just finished the latest Elly Griffiths novel, The Locked Room, featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway and detective Harry Nelson. It’s set (and was written) during the UK lockdown and is remarkably evocative of that period — the weekly “clap for carers” on doorsteps features as a plot point.
This series of 14 books is set in north Norfolk and is wonderful at evoking a sense of the landscape and history of the region. The heroine has a complicated, real, slightly messy life as a single parent and yet still manages to enjoy herself, her work and her home — an isolated cottage on the edge of a saltmarsh. If you’re after some summer reading, this is perfect. Also, can someone please make a TV series??
Watching
If you haven’t caught up on the new season of Borgen: Power and Glory yet, let me recommend it. And if you didn’t watch seasons 1-3 back in 2010, how on earth did you miss that Scandi zeitgeist?! When we all became experts in how coalition governments in Denmark worked, and became convinced we could sort-of speak Danish? (Tak!)
I’m missing spindoktor (that’s “spin-doctor” for those who, unlike me, have not absorbed Danish vocab by osmosis) Kasper Juul, but lots of the old faces are back, with Sidse Babett Knudsen (she of the twitchy nose and disarming smile) giving a great performance as the former statsminister Birgitte Nyborg, now Foreign Minister in a new coalition government, who becomes caught up in a plot involving the discovery of oil in Greenland and colliding Russian, Chinese and American interests. Let’s just say I learnt more about the geopolitics of Greenland than I ever thought possible.
The main thing I enjoyed about it, though, was its depiction of a woman growing unapologetically older, who has held power for so long that you begin to question whether the humanity that made her such a likable character 10 years ago has all but disappeared. There are no spoilers here though: you’ll just have to watch it to find out.
Listening
One podcast I’ve been enjoying is Overdue, which is billed as a podcast about the books you’ve been meaning to read. Each week the hosts choose a book — anything from classics to new releases to YA fiction — and analyse it, often hilariously. Some of the funniest episodes are recaps of series like Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey, but it’s also been a pleasure to revisit books I read as a child, like Anne of Green Gables and My Side of the Mountain. There are over 500 episodes, so plenty to keep you going for a while!
I recently took my eldest daughter to Paris — it was wonderful to visit Europe for the first time in 3 years! We did melt in 38 degree heat though…
And with that, I’ll sign off and wish you all a happy July! I’ll be heading home to Australia soon with my family during the long summer holidays in the northern hemisphere — I hope that you have safe travels if you are heading off soon on your own summer break.
Skye x