Editor’s letter
" Your bright new start’ is what we promise on the cover of this month’s magazine and it’s my great hope that, as we emerge into 2023, we serve as a dose of positivity in the current era of uncertainty. The cheerful colours of the cover and the gorgeous smile of our cover star, national treasure Jenny Agutter, will, I trust, give you a moment’s pause for pleasure and there is more to follow in these pages.
As Jenny herself reflects in her interview with us (page 10), happiness is often to be found in the smallest things and simplest pastimes. ‘My greatest simple pleasure is walking along the coast in Cornwall. It’s never not beautiful,’ she says. And she and her husband, Johan, also love to mooch around at home and in their local community, she reveals. ‘There’s Cornish singing in the pub on a Friday night, and Johan and I have a Saturday routine of going to the fishmonger and finding treats to lay out at lunchtime. We’ll spend the winter evenings reading by the fire or playing Bananagrams. It’s wonderful.’
Now that she has a two-year-old grandson, Oliver, Jenny also talks about how important her family is to her. ‘Being a grandmother is just the best. It’s all the joy of parenthood with all the concerns and challenges taken away. I get so much joy from being with him, whether we’re walking in the park, spending time in the playground – or playing with a cardboard box for hours on end!’
I think there’s a great deal of truth in the notion of grounding yourself in the small things that make you happy; for this reason, we’re introducing a new back-page interview, Simple Pleasures. In this, we’re asking friends of Good Housekeeping what are the little items or moments that spark joy for them. First up, it’s Winterwatch presenter Michaela Strachan, whose loves include pancakes, composting and listening to Louis Armstrong (page 202).
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