OPENER / ANDREW TUCK
Talk to me
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A stern grey sky; waves of rain. So we find a corner in the Chiltern Firehouse’s bar. “How are you?” seems inadequate. But it’s what I have as a starter. And then she tells me about the blast. How a hair appointment meant that she wasn’t in the shop when the explosion happened. She tells me about her child being hit by glass. She tells how the next day she joined a demonstration and soldiers started shooting. She tells me of the banks that refuse to give you your money. Of the heavy sadness that sits in your stomach. And why she had to leave. “But how are you?” she then asks with genuine interest. How do you have the bandwidth to listen to anyone else’s story when you have lived through the Beirut blast? We talk; we laugh even. And we embrace when we say goodbye. No flapping-chicken arms today. As always I am struck by how moved I am just hearing someone tell their story with searing honesty.
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It’s nice seeing a magazine come together (especially when you are not in the driving seat – at best perhaps a spare tyre in the trunk). Sophie Grove is editing our new title that’s mostly aimed at women. She has been part of the Monocle family for many years, being variously business editor, Istanbul bureau chief, a Paris correspondent and, most recently, senior correspondent. Her next badge says: “Editor, Konfekt”. There are hurdles to the process of making a new title when the pandemic is determined to be a party pooper. But somehow the Konfekt team has navigated travel bans, shuttered cities and the need to find models who live only a tram or train ride away from the shoot. What has also helped is being in the office and just talking about who the reader is; how to shape a narrative arc across disparate pages; to think of what beauty is, what luxury is, what home is, what food you want, what taste is – in every sense.
I worry how many businesses – creative businesses – think that all is fine in the land of remote chats and wobbly video calls. The same with the media: you listen to the TV news and radio interviews on some stations, and the failure to break out of the news cycle, find fresh perspectives, for the journalist to challenge their own preconceptions or to get presenters out of their kitchens leaves you feeling underserved. It’s another moment where you hanker after a better conversation. But that’s for another time. Konfekt is out on 18 November, will be quarterly and has the power of face-to-face conversations stitched as a leitmotif throughout. So there.
- Georgina Godwin, one of our anchors on Monocle 24, invited me to her home this week for dinner. Her apartment has a compact garden at the back but open the gate at its rear, cross a gravel path and in the dark you make out that you are in a vast, secret communal garden, encircled by, I guess, some 100 houses. They were clever, the Victorians, when it came to urban design. Now, if you pictured Monocle as a person, they might be riding a bicycle or reading a political thriller – but they are just as likely to be having a glass of wine and a good conversation. There’s something very social about Monocle; something at its core that’s about the power of meeting in real spaces; that’s why we organised The Chiefs in St Moritz a few weeks ago and have already pencilled in a series of events for 2021; someone has to remain positive. Well, our radio anchor and I lingered in the damp air, glasses in hands (and throwing whatever her easily entertained dog Bella dropped at our feet, including a green tomato and soggy leaf). But a secret garden is also a good place to find some time to catch up after months of fleeting early-morning-shift “hellos”. Not video conference-style mind; red wine-style.