Dear Readers,
Good afternoon and welcome to Off The Fence, a newsletter that finds you greeting our first missive of December in an altogether festive mood. We know it’s a Thursday afternoon, but we have been waiting to launch the new issue at the right time.
There is no point denying it. Our fabulous, soaraway Issue 22 has arrived safe and sound in the United Kingdom, and is one pat on the arse from a custom agent away from landing on your doorstep in the next few days. It is, as per tradition, our finest yet, and might even boast our prettiest ever cover, an appropriately mountainous image from the immortal Natalya Lobanova.
You’ll hear more about the provenance of said peak, and its relevance to Natalie Berry’s bracing and heart-rending cover story in due course, but suffice to say the whole issue is brimming with goodies. Featuring an all-star line up of all-new writing, from Francisco Garcia, Miranda Sawyer, Olympia Campbell and FaltyDL (to name but a tiny few), it’s a spectacular volume and we cannot wait for you to hold it in your hands.
If you, or your bank, know of any reason why you are not currently arranged to do this, please subscribe at the link below, or click on that glorious great mountain above.
Much more on that to follow, but here’s a little buffet of snacks to enjoy. But first, let’s get raw.
A Fishy Business
The gaping human maw known as ‘Eating With Tod’ posted a video that even his whooping followers found disquieting, and which we will link here with a warning to our vegetarian readers (to all our readers, come to think of it).
At Notting Hill’s Supermarket of Dreams, the carcass of a bluefin tuna is wheeled out of a van to a crowd of cheering W11ers, who have all paid £195 for ‘Tuna Fight Club’ night, where a 300 kilogram fish is sliced and diced and consumed raw with caviar.
From an aesthetic standpoint, it’s a grotesque sight – and from an ethical stance, well… let’s not go there.
Club Couture
It is a very good time to send us pitches – that doesn’t necessarily stand to reason, but it’s true. There’s a new pitch guide coming next week, which is something to look forward to. As ever, we’re very keen on pieces concerning misunderstood or misrepresented industries. But sometimes, we just want a juicy tale from a glamorous world with lots of funny celebrity anecdotes: guzzle inspiration with this London Fashion Week dispatch from Jade Angeles Fitton.
Spread out on the Benches
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be on the jury for a months-long trial into serious organised crime? Well, look no further than this piece from an anonymous writer. As mentioned earlier, we do love these ‘insider’ dispatches, so p-lease send your best ones to editorial@the-fence.com and we’ll get back to you promptly.
An Offaly Good Time
There is an excellent long-read by Lewis Bassett in Vittles that examines the aesthetic origins and class background that created the mini-empire that is St. JOHN, and we commend it to you entirely.
Earlier this year, Ian Trueger wrote a superb piece for us about what it’s like to work there, among the blood, guts and maniacal staff. Do give it a read if you haven’t done so already.
WLTM
True story: we are launching a personal ad service in the new year. We couldn’t be more serious about assisting our readers in find true love (or fleeting connection). Send through your entries to editorial@the-fence.com and let us be Cupid’s bow.
In Case You Missed It
Oliver Roeder gets cosmic in the FT discussing Caesium dating, the mind-bending manner of measuring time.
Esquire has one of the year’s most compelling long-reads in this first-hand account of homelessness in America by Patrick Frealey.
Joe Bobowicz on the legacy and lore of Leigh Bowery thirty years after his death, for The Face.
Is this the best house in the world?
Photographer Tancredi Newbury shadows Leo Robson around San Luis Obispo, for TANK. Two straight-down-the-line fellas having a sraight-down-the-line time sampling delicious wine in California.
The LSE Library has put Charles Booth’s beauteous Maps Descriptive of London Poverty 1898-9 online.
And Finally
In 1968, in the context of increasing anxiety about immigration, the BBC sent Georgia Brown to make a film about her roots in the East End.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7uW7koB7pw
What follows is an eloquent and humane paean to immigration, which also serves as a fascinating time capsule of nesting histories; the Victorian landscape of cobbles, street vendors and fishyards; a first-hand account from a Russian émigré who landed in 1910; the still-recent memory of the privations, bombs and evacuations of the war years; and the bustle and swing of the ever-changing world of late sixties London.
Brown’s essayistic approach is both empathetic and unfailingly sharp of tooth. The film also features Vidal Sassoon extemporising about class, and Lionel Bart quizzing a random child, albeit with a needlessly menacing aura. But doesn’t Georgia Brown have such a lovely voice?
Truly, something for everyone.
That’s it for now, we’ll be back again on Sunday with more goodies, baddies, odds, sods and ends. We’ll leave you with an ardent reminder that no number before 1,000 contains the letter A. If you’d like to speak to the editor about an order, email support@the-fence.com. Keep it light.
All the best,
TF