What’s something small that makes your life noticeably better - that most people wouldn’t think to ask about?

Five Fun Questions (and a recommendation) with Hayley Webster

Hi! I’m Keris. I’m an author writing about writing and books, music and films and TV, cats and life and food. All the good stuff.

Hayley is a brilliant friend, a beautiful writer, and an author of books for adults and young people. She sees meaning in seemingly small or insignificant things, which is the theme of her glorious Substack, Touch Points.

A personal cabinet of curiosities, written one object at a time.

I was excited to ask her the five fun questions.

Someone gives you £10k. You HAVE to spend it on travel. Where do you go? What do you do?

I think it would be Paris, Iceland, and New York City (not at the moment).

Paris for walking and noticing and food and all the places I grew up reading about.

Iceland for space and weather and old stories.

New York for energy and a lifetime of movies I’ve seen and books I’ve read set there, but on my own terms — early mornings, long walks and watching.

What’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten? And the worst?

Most delicious:

Something simple made by someone else.

Warm, good bread and cheese eaten in the park.

The kind of meal that makes you feel joyful rather than impressed.

Worst:

Cold egg sandwiches.

Specifically: the ones I politely ate at a friend’s house as a kid.

Then her mum gave me them every time I saw her.

Cold egg is always wrong. Always.

If you could learn a new skill from anyone in the world, what would you want to learn and who would you want to teach you?

I’d want to learn one particular dance. I don’t know which, one I’d never heard of but that you could do anywhere and teach others easily.

Not to be good at it.

Not to perform.

Just to feel joy while doing it.

Taught by:

Someone who understands that joy isn’t earned, so someone older and unshowy.

The point wouldn’t be skill, it would be permission to feel something without thinking what you look like doing it.

What would be the title of the story of your life?

“Apparently This Is How I Do Things.”

What (fun) question should I ask the next person I interview?

“What’s something small that makes your life noticeably better — that most people wouldn’t think to ask about?”

Bonus question, set by the last person I interviewed, Steve Xoh:

If you had to go to a creature for life advice, what creature would it be?

A seal. They take breaks very seriously. They looks ridiculous on land, graceful in their own element.

Enjoy life, as far as I can see. Solid advice, honestly.

Please also recommend something - a book, film, TV show, song or album - and tell me why you love it.

Book: Great Expectations is perfect and can be read as many times as you like. Miss Havisham is a perfect invention.

Film: Amelie. Everyone’s probably seen it, but have you seen it recently? It’s the first film I ever saw where the main female lead was even slightly like me in her interior world. And I can’t think of many (any?) since.

TV Show: Only Murders in the Building. Joyful. Hilarious. Moving. Rewatchable over and over.

Album: Holy Fire by Foals. It is still fresh. It reminds me of seeing them with my teen and jumping and singing and smiling at each other. My Number is a perfect song.

Thanks so much, Hayley!

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