The Friday 5 #106
On giving up the Guardian and a BIG subscription offer to mark the occasion + this month’s cookbook giveaway + how to up your iPhone game
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Well the cat is well and truly out of the bag this week. After nearly 14 years I’ve resigned from the Guardian!
You can see why, in my valdedictory column today but I’ll be writing a longer post about the thinking behind it over the next few days. (Writers don’t generally give up national newspaper columns. . .)
Anyway I feel totally positive about the decision which I made 3 months ago mainly in order to be freer to travel. I’m not getting any younger and you need to grab these opportunities while you’re still fit and energetic enough to enjoy them.
Does that mean no more wine recommendations you might be wondering!
No, it absolutely doesn’t! I’ll still be going to tastings albeit with not quite the relentless frequency of the past few years (see this post on what it’s like being a wine writer). I’ll also be doing more to introduce you to wines you might not have heard of and enjoy.
One of the benefits of doing this Substack has been the ability to recommend wines by retailer. You can’t really do that when you’re writing for a newspaper but I’ve always been conscious that if you find yourself online or in a shop searching for a particular wine it would be useful to know of others worth buying.
There will be more of that, starting today with 6 wines I currently rate from Asda
Also this week my latest cookbook giveaway, a fabulously glam new restaurant in London and a photography course that will enable you to up your instagram game
If you’ve been a loyal Guardian reader and would like to carry on getting my recommendations - or indeed have been hanging around here as a free reader for a while - you might like to take advantage of the 50% off annual subscriptions I’m offering this weekend which brings the cost down to just £21 or less than 50p a week.
You’ll also be eligible to join in my next online ‘bring a bottle’ tasting next Monday evening at 6.30. (These are regular monthly online tastings where we pick a theme and each participant brings along a bottle to enjoy and discuss. Monday’s theme is Island Whites so think in terms of white wines from Sicily, Sardinia, Santorini, Crete and other Greek islands ….
ICYMI you will also be able to access my new guide to where to eat in my home city of Bristol which I suspect will be useful to a lot of you who are visiting for the first time or have kids at uni here.
If you don’t want to subscribe for a year (though it absolutely makes sense if you can afford it on this offer) you can dip a toe in the water for just £5. You’ll save it on the wine recommendations alone 😉
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