Things to pay attention to in April

Haiku, wild garlic and Shakespeare

Happy April!

I find myself a little nostalgic today. I used to enjoy checking the news for the token April Fools news story—the Guardian’s spoof Labour election campaign in 2010, in which the incumbent Gordon Brown appeared on posters inviting his electoral rival David Cameron to ‘step outside, posh boy’, was a highlight. But the world has changed immeasurably in the fifteen years since then. Perusing the same news outlet this morning, I didn’t find a single April Fool’s candidate (although there were plenty of headlines I wished were spoofs). Deliberately publishing fake news can’t really be spun as a harmless prank anymore, and just looking for one felt like a hangover from a more innocent time. Sigh.

Nevertheless, despite the increasingly concerning state of the world, there are still reasons to be cheerful—namely, the return of the light (in a literal if not metaphorical sense) and the burgeoning of spring. All over London, trees are frothy with blossom and the birds are singing their hearts out.

Spring is an appropriate metaphor for the inner workings of my brain at present, as my troublesome second novel blooms/buds/hatches/sprouts into a form that can finally (hopefully) be shared with my agent. Ironically, the hatching process has meant many long hours sitting inside and staring at a laptop screen while the delights of the season pass by outside the window. But good weather cannot be taken for granted in this country, and I’m very aware of the need to prise my eyes from my manuscript and pay attention to something else. So here are a few suggestions to myself—and maybe to you too, if you’re also in need of a reminder.