Louise Hare – Favourite Things
Each week Reaction Weekend brings you Favourite Things – interviews with interesting people about the skills, hobbies, pleasures and past times that make them who they are.
Louise Hare is a London-based author. Her debut novel, This Lovely City, follows the story of a Jazz musician arriving in post-war London fresh off the Empire Windrush. This Lovely City is available now in hardback, eBook and Audio (HQ).
These are a few of her favourite things…
Knitting
This is a recent hobby; a desperate coping strategy from the first lockdown in March when I found myself unable to concentrate. Without being able to read or write and stuck with watching Netflix shows that I’d already seen, since I couldn’t take in anything new, I grew anxious. An Instagram ad led me to invest in a beginner’s knitting kit. To my surprise, I found that I enjoyed the repetitive action of knitting, the physical action of it and learning to understand the patterns. My mind grew clearer and I was able to get back to more of an even keel mentally. I wouldn’t say that I’ve mastered the skill, but as I write this, I’m close to completing my first jumper.
London buses
In the book Ordinary People by Diana Evans, Michael takes the bus to work over the tube so that he can look out of the window. I can identify with this. We also share a favourite seat: “the top deck, second from the front on the left-hand side.” When I first moved to London, living in a flat share just off Clapham Common, I was skint. I had a weekly season ticket for work which meant that on my days off I could jump on a bus to central London without paying any extra; hopping on the tube would have blown a hole in my budget. Sitting on the top deck, I learned the layout of the city. In fact, often I’d just get on any bus, heading anywhere, just to see new streets and new areas.
Ru Paul’s Drag Race
Sometimes you just need some joy in your life, and during these periods of intermittent lockdown, I’ve occasionally spent entire days binge watching Drag Race. Not just the original US version, but the UK and Canadian spin offs as well. If you’re not familiar with the concept, just imagine Project Runway crossed with America’s Next Top Model and featuring the best drag queens from across the nation. When I run out of new episodes, I go back to my favourite seasons and re-watch them. I don’t want to call it a guilty pleasure because guilt just isn’t an emotion that I associate with this show. It’s pure bliss: funny, bitchy, fashionable and empowering. I can’t explain just how much I love it.
Window shopping for holidays
I left my previous career back in January, hoping to become a full-time writer. As it turns out, it was quite a wise decision and I would likely have lost my job due to Covid-19 if I hadn’t already departed: I planned dream holidays. One of my favourite past-times is to plan my own dream holiday. The more random the better, and I never expect to go on them. Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel, but I doubt I’ll be able to go everywhere on my bucket list, so this is a good alternative. (Another way of killing time is to go on the Rightmove app and look at houses in different parts of the UK – again, no intention of buying necessary).
Theatre
One reason why I don’t see myself leaving London in the near future is my love of theatre. There’s a magic to theatre that you don’t find in film and TV and I love it because it doesn’t have to be expensive. I rarely spend much more than I would on a cinema ticket (a London priced cinema ticket, that is) – and you don’t have to. There are bargains to be had if you don’t mind sitting up in the Gods, and I quickly learned which theatres have cheap seats with a decent view: The National, the Royal Court, the Young Vic. I also fell in love with opera after discovering that the Balcony at the Colosseum, home to the English National Opera, is super cheap and, if it’s not busy, they let you move forward once the lights go down.