Ian McEwan and high-rise jeans

New season, new era - though the pandemic is far from over, there's a sense of release in the air, renewal, coming together, things opening up. It's also fall already, early here, although what used to be called Indian summer will surely be coming and it'll be hot again, briefly. For now - chilly, damp, grey.

And so, to signal this new era, I am wearing, not sweatpants and a t-shirt but actual clothes and a bra. I'm a grown-up with responsibilities and have to keep my body in check. As a special treat, I'm wearing my new grey Gérard Darel jeans from New York for the first time. What so special about them is that the waist is high enough to cover the belly-button. Yes, they encase the belly, instead of stopping beneath it, thus illuminating the roll-top bulge. I do not know who invented the low-slung look we've all been required to wear for a decade - it was impossible to find pants that went higher - but now thank god it's over and we can be comfortable again.

Last night, I put on respectable clothes to go to the Fleck Dance Theatre, the guest of my old friend Eleanor Wachtel, who was interviewing Ian McEwan as part of the International Festival of Authors. What an evening - McEwan as articulate and thoughtful a storyteller as only a famous British novelist can be, and Eleanor as always the best interviewer in the world, probing gently but firmly. His new novel Lessons takes his character, based largely on his own life, from the Suez Crisis to Brexit and the pandemic. So he reflected on world events - how, when the Berlin Wall fell, it was a time when the doors of repression were flung open all over the world. And now, those doors are closing. Italy now. 

This fabulous interview will appear on Writers and Company in the future. I'll let you know when. 

Nice words: Yesterday, taped the third episode of my new podcast True to Life: talking about memoir, which will drop later this week. Friend Lynn in France listened and wrote, It’s fabulous, very clear, well structured and easy to listen to. I hope you get a large audience because it is a goldmine for people who want to write memoir.   Excellent work. Love the sound track. 

My first feedback. I know, she's my best friend, but I assure you, she's critical and would not say things she did not believe. And I've had more nice notes about the Globe essay, all of them telling me about their own or their mother's collections: china teacups, silver tea sets. Things no one wants now. 

The compilation of my blog, which is going to be printed, is almost finished. A million and a half words from 2007 to 2020. What a lunatic! And now here are a few more.