Good things: Summer ‘25
I recently listened to an episode of Sentimental Garbage (my current favourite podcast), in which host Caroline O’Donoghue talks about how Summer is different from any other season. She explains that we look back on A Summer in a completely different way than we do a spring, autumn or winter. Summers stand out as distinct chapters in our lives because they are so full of weddings, parties, BBQs, holidays, drinks and picnics. Summer hits different.
In amongst all the chaos of summer, it’s important to find pockets of calm. Make sure you're taking time to recharge and stay inspired. Here are some good things to enjoy during those restful moments.
Good things to watch
From modern rom-coms to queer classics, here are some good things to watch that will help you chill out after a long, hot day…
Plus One
Film ✹ 1 hour, 39 mins ✹ A genuinely good rom-com. A very generic plot and title. Best friends Alice and Ben agree to accompany each other to a series of weddings. A hilarious and refreshingly believable modern romance.
Cha Cha Real Smooth
Film ✹ 1 hour, 47 mins ✹ Another genuinely good, inventive, modern rom-com. A 22-year-old man forms an unlikely relationship with a mother and her daughter, who has autism. Co-starring the icon that is Dakota Johnson.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Film ✹ 1 hour, 40 mins ✹ Tensions resurface when former bandmates / lovers reunite for a private show at the island home of an eccentric millionaire. So funny. So sweet. So ridiculous. One of the best films of the year.
Just Act Normal
TV show ✹ Three siblings fight to stay together after their mother disappears. A unique new Birmingham-based drama. Starring three young stars. Jamelia is also in it.
I Kissed A Boy
TV show ✹ The UK’s first LGBTQ+ dating show. A bunch of gay men spend the summer in Italy with everyone’s favourite nepo-sister, Dannii Minogue. Some interesting conversations about modern dating and queer culture are sprinkled in amongst a lot of kissing and messy behaviour.
Death Becomes Her
Film ✹ 1 hour, 44 mins ✹ 1992 comedy-fantasy about Hollywood’s obsession with youth. Kind of like The Substance, but fun and good. Meryl Streep’s campiest role. A queer classic. I’m embarrassed I hadn’t seen it before now.
Good things to read
Whether it’s a novel to get lost in as you laze around in the sun all day or an essay to ponder on during your next train journey to somewhere exciting, here are some good things to read…
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Book ✹ 12 stories. 12 characters. 12 interconnected lives. Over 100 years. Countless self-discoveries about family, friendship, home and hope. A Booker Prize winner. An ever-expanding, wise and witty novel shedding new light on the experience of Black women in modern Britain. ✹ “What matters most to me, is that I know how I feel, and the rest of the world might catch up one day, even if it’ll be a quiet revolution over longer than my lifetime, if it happens at all.”
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Book ✹ A photographer and a dancer meet at a pub and fall in love. A simple love story complicated by fear and violence. A stunningly written, soulful exploration of race, masculinity and mental health. Questioning what it means to be truly seen. ✹ “What you're trying to say is that it's easier for you to hide in your own darkness, than emerge cloaked in your own vulnerability. Not better, but easier.
Meg Lewis on separating who you're told to be from who you really are
Interview ✹ The Creative Independent ✹ “Almost every adult I’ve ever met has had this issue where they don’t know how to separate the person they’ve been told they should be and the person who they actually are. We’re all just cosplaying as the version of ourselves we think people want us to be.”
Why am I crying about unfollowing someone I barely even know?! by Meg Lewis
Article ✹ The Big Slide ✹ “People often act like others are just static in the background. But every stranger is totally, beautifully, specifically themselves. Most forget to even notice their face, a face that has never existed in this exact way before. That alone should be awe-inspiring!”
How to become friends with literally anyone
Book ✹ April & The Fool ✹ “I am curious about people– people contain worlds, histories, stories that span across generations and geographies, all layered into their psychology, formulating a unique identity. Isn’t that fascinating? Don’t you want to know more?”
Why I’m changing my name to James by James Tom
Article ✹ Them ✹ “I took to faggotry like a fish in water, and with my new gay surroundings came new ways for people to perceive me, and more importantly, new ways for me to perceive myself.”
Kiley Reid on day jobs and money creative work
Interview ✹ The Creative Independent ✹ “It’s hard to pick up a book written about normal people told by normal people, because it’s mostly people who have financial stability who get to have the time to write books, and I think that that’s a huge detriment to literature at large.”
Losing ones (algo)rythm by Reece Davey
Article ✹ “We’re craving something slower. We can’t exactly run off to the mountains — our lives are here now, rooted in the big smoke. So instead, we find new ways to put the brakes on. Journals. Books. Walks without a podcast. And increasingly, analogue or analogue adjacent rituals.”
TOKiMONSTA on leaning into your weirdness
Interview ✹ The Creative Independent ✹ “It’s tough. My friend was young, and you don’t expect to lose your friend so soon and so tragically. It’s sobering, and it just shows you how finite life is—to live each day graciously, and to remember that tomorrow’s never guaranteed, so we want to make the decisions that bring us joy as often as possible.”
Good things to look at
Perhaps your summer is too busy to watch or read anything. Surely, you have time to look at a few pieces of gorgeous illustration.
The longlist for the World Illustration Awards 2025 was recently unveiled. As I do every year, I have scoured through the 500-strong list of talented illustrators and picked out some of my favourite pieces. Here is my very own Headless Shortlist…
These are, of course, my personal picks. I highly recommend spending some time browsing the World Illustration Awards longlist at your own leisure. Your new favourite illustrator could be buried amongst the entries, waiting to be discovered.
Other good things
Pigeon prints, fidget toys and goose lamps - some lovely things don’t fit neatly into a category. Here are some miscellanious good things…
Art prints by Lost Astronaut
Shop ✹ Lovely, colourful, Scottish prints by a lovely, colourful, Scottish illustrator. Cushiedoo is the Scots word for pigeon - duh.
Initiative ✹ Reimagining how adults can support children’s reading and writing. Sparking a lifelong love of literature. Illustrations by Marcus Oakley.
House tour ✹ A of Risotto’s gorgeous Glasgow home. As eclectic, colourful and carefully curated as you’d hope it would be. I need a goose lamp.
Collaboration ✹ Mr Jones Watches x Jacqueline Colley. An intricately illustrated, limited edition. An entire universe captured on a watch face.
Digital playground ✹ An interactive, experimental, digital fidget toy designed by Noodle. Incredibly pleasing and soothing to play with. Tap, click, poke, prod and explore.
37 good things - that’s two more than last time. I hope there is something in there that inspires a moment of calm amidst the summer hayhem. Enjoy the sunshine!