Christmas Stories and Community Ep.1

You know that feeling of I was supposed to be doing something else today, when out of nowhere you’re compelled to do the unexpected? That’s this post. I had the privilege of listening to amazing Substack writers read their work at a very special Christmas event organised by

Farrah @Substack

last night in London on the theme of togetherness.

That is my excuse for not getting anything done today. The surge of energy from listening to

Jameela Jamil

,

Annie Macmanus

,

India Knight

,

Nick Hornby

and

Pandora Sykes

is still working its way through me. The breadth of what they had to say on the importance of reading, writing and community was incredibly powerful. It was like spending a couple of hours listening to the best of Radio 4’s Book of the Week. That there’s space for so many unedited points of view is what makes Substack exciting. Threaded through the evening was a united understanding of how important it is to be a community and come together; to listen, share ideas and he heard. To celebrate all that connects us, rather than what separates us. I hope this is the first of many Substack events.

But this is a selfish post. I popped into the kitchen, just now, to make a third cup of tea in the hope it would revive me and I’d be able to do some work. But no. I thought about the first reader,

Hanif Kureishi

, instead. I devoured Kureishi’s texts as a teenager when I was lucky enough to be in a workshop with him at The Birmingham Rep, twenty-four years ago, as part of their Young Playwrights programme. Not that he would remember sitting with a group of Midlands teens with big dreams of becoming writers. Of course, I remember it vividly. He was so cool in a leather jacket and scarf, relaxed and funny. I’d never met anyone like him before. What has stayed with me from that day most of all, was nothing to do with writing, it was the tone of his voice and the way he talked about reading to one of his son’s. It was the love that made the biggest mark on my memory.

Last night one Hanif Kureishi’s sons’, Carlo, turned the pages of his father’s astounding memoir Shattered. During the Q&A Farrah asked him a reader’s question about their writing process together. Kureishi’s response caught me off guard. He talked about the beauty of collaboration, of how special writing together is for them, as father and son, and that he’d never experienced that partnership before.

That was what came to me when I was boiling the kettle. It was my mum. I was so lucky to write three books published by HarperCollins with my mum, Sarah Beeson MBE, about her life. I realised today that is one of the many reasons it’s be so hard to write since she died, and probably why I celebrate the community Substack has given me.When we were collaborating, even my own agent at the time would worry that I was doing all the writing, without much of the glory, but I didn’t care, because it was such a wonderful journey to be on with her.

Sarah asked me to write up her stories for a little Christmas collection, and it’s still on my To Do List, I can’t do it yet, and I don’t know if I ever will. I had the file of notes open on my laptop all through November. I couldn’t even face reading them without her.

We weren’t just a writing team, we were a team for 41 years, we were each other’s everything, and now I have to find something of my own without her. I can only take a small step at a time forwards, because each step also feels like a step away from her, from that life. I haven’t been able to write the Totley Christmas Stories she wanted to publish about health visiting in a small Kent village in the 1970s. I’m sorry mum.

I can’t write today, but what I can do is read some extracts from our books together that are the Christmas chapters, and remember what a remarkable life we shared together. I’m sorry, not sorry, to make last night about me, I didn’t mean to, but I guess that’s what all readers do. Reading this chapter wasn’t easy (apologies for that, bear with me), but she still lives in these pages, and that’s a beautiful gift.

Love Amy x

Find out if Sarah managed to help this mother and baby.

Find out if Sarah managed to help this mother and baby.

Like to read more?

If you’d like to read any of my published books then please consider buying from my online bookshop. The New Arrival, Our Country Nurse and Happy Baby, Happy Family. To find out more about my life as Head of Storytelling visit Wordsby Communications.

You’re invited to the next Substack Writers Meet Up in West London on Saturday 13 January 2025.

Would you like to be one of my readers?

It would be lovely Christmas present if you’d support my writing by upgrading to being a Paid Subscriber, because the more Subscribers I have, the more time it will give me to write. If you’re on your phone then you can’t upgrade in the app. Open a window in your browser and go to the I Need To Finish This Before I Die homepage, click on the purple Upgrade to paid button top right. You can choose from pay monthly for £3.99 or Annually for £42.71 or become a founding member for £120 a year (there’s lots of extras for each membership tier).