The Spillbook
A REFLECTIVE STEEP
“Read! And your Lord is Most Generous”
SOCIETY
The Divine Gift of Reading
Books, the ability to produce and read them, have long marked the vitality of civilisation. As a written record of our collective memory, they weave the very fabric of thought and culture. To read is to be educated not by the mere digestion of information, but through its transformation.
On Contentment
SENTIMENT
The Quiet Confidence of Enough
It’s a truth, perhaps not nearly universally acknowledged as it should be, that the secret ingredient to enjoying life isn’t happiness but contentment. By definition, contentment is the calm satisfaction, the easy acceptance of one’s circumstances. Unlike the erratic elation of happiness, it is mellow, a sailboat anchored in a steady sea of blue.
Offline & Outdoors
SOCIETY
The Power of Physical Presence
Iconic on-screen moments for millennials and boomers alike would be remiss to exclude Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Both the 1971 and later adaptations of Roald Dahl’s novel remain lodged in many of our collective imaginations.
New Age Nostalgia
SENTIMENT
Beyond the 90s & Film Grain
Blockbuster cinema. An endless scroll of streaming platforms. Short-form content. Long-form content. There’s more to watch than ever before, and yet we keep returning to what we’ve already seen.
A Liminal State of Living
SELF
What is the Liminal Space and How Do We Live With It?
There’s a stretch of time between what was and what will be—a foggy, formless space without shape, structure or routine. Upon graduating from my MA, Chancellor Dawn French described it musically as fermata: a pause, held longer than usual for expressive effect. In anthropology, it’s called the liminal—a threshold state between identities, the crossing between chapters. Neither here nor there, it’s a space many of us find ourselves in throughout life. We feel unsettled, vulnerable, quietly unanchored.