A Substack mixtape
Hitting pause, and posts from the archive
Happy Wednesday!
I am flagging… not just because of the heat and humidity in Hong Kong, but when it comes to my writing.
Therefore, I have decided to have a summer break from this newsletter. However, I will still be on Substack and reading, liking, and commenting.
But before I sign off, I was wondering - do you know of or remember the BBC One TV show, Top of the Pops?
Apologies if you have never heard of it, but Top of the Pops ran from 1964-2006 and remains one of the longest running shows in British TV history. Each week, you would see many of the acts perform in the studio, and it had a compilations vibe - you would have Madonna on right after the Vengaboys1, or Oasis warming up for Tina Turner (I know that there are inaccuracies here, but you get the idea).
Therefore, for this non-post post, I have selected five pieces from the TBOI archive to share with you. A Substack compilation or mixtape, if you will.
For new subscribers, these posts will give you a bit of a flavour of what’s going on around here. But they have nothing to do with stats or view, they are simply pieces that I had some of the most fun putting together.
Before we get started, I decided to search for a Top of the Pops intro clip to accompany this post. The BBC were ahead of their time with this steampunk intro:
So, in no particular order… a TBOI mixtape!
If there is a particular post of your own that you would like to share from your archive, I’d love to read it - please let me know in the comments.
Take care,
Sarah
And unless you are a reader of my ‘A Novel in a Year’ digests (June’s edition will be published next Monday) - I will see you in August!
One last thing - just in case you are interested…
It’s the UK General Election tomorrow (as well as Independence Day in the USA… weird coincidence). My postal vote form has been received (thanks, mum!), and as a politics geek but not living in the UK, it means that I will be watching the results come in live at a reasonable time in the morning in Asia.
There was a time when I thought about going into politics myself. That thought didn’t last long, but if you want to read more I shared this post a few weeks ago:
That time when I wanted to go into politics
A Sunday in mid-July, 2007 - I am on a train down to London where I have been accepted onto a work experience program in the Houses of Parliament. A couple of months prior, the tutor for my teacher training course had informed the group about an opportunity organised by the Parliamentary Education Service. They were loo…
Couldn’t help myself… if you are unsure of who the Vengaboys are, click the link. You will not be disappointed.
Have the best summer, Sarah! Your Top of the Pops reference made me smile. 90-95 were the exact years I was at boarding school in the UK and I do remember it. Enjoy the time and space you've created for yourself over the next several weeks, and I'll be following your Novel in a Year posts.
That sounds very civilised being able to watch the election results come in at a sensible time! I will try to stay up and watch but imagine I’ll fall asleep!
Enjoy your summer break and see you on the other side! 🙌🏻