The qatsi awards

[qatsi]

I suppose 2023 was officially normal. It was the year Sunak took every opportunity to stay in the gutter when he had a choice to make. Wouldn't it be nice if the rivers weren't full of raw sewage, all the medics weren't on strike and the trains ran on time? It's the little things. Personally, broadband not working for nearly a month, catching covid for a second time, and having the gas hob condemned, was just indicative of the state of the country as a whole. (On the plus side, we now have a nice new induction hob, with which I am very happy; fibre has been laid in the village and I am contemplating the upgrade, although as it is not Openreach we do not have a choice of supplier). The media is talking up a 2024 general election for the UK (well, given January 2025 is the last possible date I suppose it's fairly inevitable). I wouldn't expect things to turn around overnight, but it would be nice to silence the dog whistles and make politics boring again.

Anyway, here are some highlights from my year:

• Fiction - The Man Who Died Twice, by Richard Osman


• Non-fiction - Empires of Light, by Jill Jonnes


• Music - Max Richter's Recomposed: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons at the Proms


• Film and Theatre - Oppenheimer


• Museums, Exhibitions and Visits - M K Čiurlionis: Between Worlds at Dulwich Picture Gallery


• Food and Drink - Carbonara at The Spaghetti Incident in Bristol

Honourable mentions for
Silverview, The Underground Railroad, and Babel (fiction); British Rail, Venice, and Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle (non-fiction); Alma Mahler and Dora Pejačević, Isata Kanneh-Mason playing Prokofiev and Felix Klieser playing Mozart, and Finlandia and Snöfrid (music); The Herschel Museum, Bath, and Tyntesfield, and Italica, Seville (exhibitions and visits).