The September List

A round up this past month's most scrumptious things to read, wear, cook and do

This whole month I feel like I’ve been trying to catch up. Catch up on my inbox. Catch up on my to-do list. Catch up with friends who I haven’t seen in too long. Catch up with life. Anyway, I’m conscious that these lists, where I round up all the things I’ve most enjoyed in the past month, have started creeping further away from their intended publication date and firmly towards the middle of the following month, which just won’t do. So, in the spirit of catching up: here’s the September List, hot off the press and while it’s still fresh in my mind…

I mean: hello, friends!! How sweet is this? It’s a nice, chunky tumbler too, so feels good to hold in your hand (important with glassware, I can’t help but think). As far as I’m concerned, the little farfalle pasta shapes are too perfect for words, but the same glasses also come with a myriad of other decorative details: hearts, cherries, rainbows, you name it and there’s a tumbler with it…

I’ve been cooking from my ‘new’ book (out next week!) for years now, as it came ogether: developing the recipes, testing them, tweaking them, testing again… But now that the book exists IRL (in real life), and all the recipes are set in stone and bound together as an actual, physical book, I’ve been really enjoying baking from it (spoiler alert: there’s a lot of baking recipes in there). This particular pavlova (so-called ‘Christmas Pavlova’ because, if you squint, it looks little like a festive wreath) topped with amarena cherries, pomegranate and red currants is fast proving a firm favourite.

I couldn’t love this brilliant Aqua x Angelica Hicks collaboration more! Peak fabulousness, as far as I’m concerned, is a crisp white shirt with a salad leaf collar. Seriously: what more could we want in our lives? Also, very cute is the spaghetti dress from the same collection, where the ‘spaghetti’ straps are actual strands of crochet spaghetti, dripping with fresh, crochet tomato sauce. A witty, playful twist on super wearable wardrobe classics. LOVE.

These are so far outside of what seems sensible to spend on a pair of trainers; and yet, when I find myself wistfully daydreaming, this is what I’m dreaming about. Says the woman who doesn’t even wear trainers to go to the gym. I tried them on in the shop (madness, I know, but I got carried away) and, while this might seem like an odd thing to say, they just look very elegant on the foot, which is how I got hooked. They’re made with butter soft suede and feel like you’re wearing slippers (part of the reason I don’t wear trainers very often is that I tend to find them quite heavy and clunky on the foot); and they come in a very chic range of colours, of which the deep shade of burgundy is my favourite.

A brilliant new podcast by my clever friend (and queen of the travel industry), Jules Perowne, with actor (and national institution) Richard E. Grant, whose voice (as a side-note) I could happily listen to until the cows come home. Each episode is dedicated to a different, historic hotel and gives you a highly, engaging potted version of the institution’s history. Highlights include the Gritti in Venice and Claridges in London (both hotels I have a sentimental soft spot for). This is such a joyful, lighthearted and yet surprisingly informative listen, that not only transports you to beautiful places around the world, but also carries you across time.