Your provocative Heyday Friday newsletter
Be prepared to have your views challenged, your attitudes changed and your liquid consumption explained in this week's newsletter
I could start this week’s newsletter with one of my usual teasers, by saying “do you recognise the woman in this picture”?
But I’m guessing there won’t be many, if any, of you who aren’t familiar with the author of the best selling series of books in history. The fact that you will almost certainly know that’s JK Rowling means, I’m equally sure, that you’ll also be aware of just how catastrophically far she has fallen out of favour with legions of her former fans and admirers around the world, having waded - or rather, it could be argued, hurled herself - into the deeply polarising debate around gender and sex with a series of controversial tweets back in 2020.
The reason I mention all of this, is that at the end of March a podcast was launched called The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, and in this week’s blog, having listened to all the episodes in the seven part series, I explain why I really recommend you do the same, whatever you think your views are on Rowling, the subject of transgender, or, indeed Harry Potter (the blog starts with a confession on my part).
Because I’d be surprised if, by the the time you get to the end, you haven’t at the very least found them challenged, and maybe even changed.
You can read the blog by CLICKING HERE
I feel it would be remiss of me not to use this as a moment to share some JK Rowling-penned
WORDS OF WISDOM
These, then, come courtesy of Hogwarts headmaster, Albus Dumbledore
And whilst we’re on the subject of wisdom and podcasts, another intensely thought-provoking, world-view-shifting podcast interview I recommended a while ago was with this man (no teasers here either - he’s Sir Tim Smit, founder of The Eden Project), and still feel just as strongly everyone should listen to (as you’ll see from its title) as I did when I wrote THE BLOG about it
There are quite enough reviews and recommendations in this newsletter already, so rather than do another, and in recognition of the fact that Sunday (May 21st) is not only my younger daughter’s birthday, but of potentially rather more broad interest, International Tea Day (A UN designated day promoting the sustainable production and consumption of tea and raising awareness of its importance in fighting hunger and poverty, about which you can learn more HERE), here are some
FRIDAY FUN FACTS
about the world’s second most widely consumed beverage (after water, in case you were wondering)
FRIDAY FUNNY
This perfectly encapsulates what happens to an embarrassingly large number of the cups of tea I make. How about you?
There won’t be a newsletter next week because I’m going to be away for a few days with my lovely sis who’s getting married at the end of June in Shrewsbury, where she and her husband will be moving to not long after their wedding. She asked me if I’d like to come with her for her final dress fitting and see the house they’ve bought which they plan to knock down and rebuild into the home of their dreams. Obviously I said “yes please!”
I expect there will be many cuppas brewed and drunk, and not a few tears shed when I see her in the dress.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with something that has been requested by enough of you that it would be rude to ignore you any longer. You apparently want to see what I looked like when my sisters and I dressed up in Abba costumes for my 50 birthday celebrations (which I wrote about in the ‘Blunders and beauty’ newsletter, in case you missed it). Well all I can say is, be careful what you wish for (I’m the one in the middle. The sis that’s getting married is the one in blue)….
….and you’re welcome.
Back with you again on June 2nd.