Happy Saturday! I’m back selecting some of my favourite reads from the past seven days. Photographer Anne Geddes reflecting on the Cabbage Kids and the flowerpot babies that made her famous almost passed me by – see it as a little treat before we dig in.
1. ‘Is everyone getting smaller except me?’
The body positivity movement seems to be dead, and no one is trying to resuscitate it. If previous years had “Brat summer” and “hot girl summer”, Rose Stokes says we are now living through the northern hemisphere’s “shrinking girl summer”.
Adele, Lizzo, Oprah Winfrey: You name it! Celebrities and, it seems, nearly everyone else have tried weight-loss drugs. Even Stokes did.
Torment and temptation: But for overweight people who choose not to take the jabs, or for whom they don’t work, the “pervasive trend” is making life harder.
How long will it take to read: Seven minutes.
2. Staying prepped
You might remember a few newsletters ago I recommended a story on prepping going mainstream in the UK. Consider this your follow-up: on the Australians dedicating their lives to preparing for the end of civilisation.
Survivalism: Kate Lyons interviews preppers, “country prepared” people and even a “bush survivalist” to better understand their methods and motives.
Expert: Australians tend to be more “practical” preppers (in case of bushfires or other natural disasters, where supplies will eventually come) says Bradley Garrett, a geographer and researcher in preppers.
While in America: Prepping is on the rise in the US amid a second Trump presidency. “They’re much more concerned that help is not going to arrive and you’re on your own,” he says.
How long will it take to read: Five and a half minutes.
3. Sharon Stone on strength and survival
Before Sharon Stone found out whether she had won an Oscar for her performance in Casino, Francis Ford Coppola told her she wouldn’t win. It was at a pre-ceremony party. When she asked why, the Hollywood director replied, “I didn’t win it for The Godfather and Marty didn’t win it for Raging Bull and you’re not going to win it for Casino,” she tells Simon Hattenstone.
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“So that is what I have carried through my life – that I am a big fat loser like Marty and Francis Ford Coppola.” – Sharon Stone
Why Stone never got offered any big roles after that movie or nomination is something that has plagued the actor for the decades since.
‘Too good’: Her theory as to why is a must read.
How long will it take to read: 10 minutes.
4. Twenty-five years on from True History of the Kelly Gang
Peter Carey says his literary muse came to him when he was to standing in front of a Sidney Nolan painting. He was a few years out of school, and there the figure was: Ned Kelly.
Carey might not have known it then, but he would go on “to make modern poetry from the voice of a hero who was condemned to death” into a Booker-winning masterpiece. And in this read, he shares just how he did it.
Readers’ reply: “It will, and should, give any aspiring author not only pause, but inspiration.”
How long will it take to read: Four and a half minutes.
5. ‘Trump is a horror story, isn’t he?’: Stephen King
Apparently Stephen King doesn’t like doing interviews very much. Perhaps he did this one because it was led by our wonderful readers. In it, King reveals his sources of inspiration, the colour of fear, knowing when to quit – and why manual labour is invaluable for writers.
His take on Trump? Impeachment is the solution, but “it’s a horror story either way”.
How long will it take to read: Four minutes.
Further reading: “She’s the one that matters”: the growing influence of Melania on Donald Trump, by Patrick Wintour, is a final must-read.
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