The Year of Vertigo

A belated 2023 roundup

© Pete Jones 2023. In our house, we call this pic “The Matriarch”. I'm pretty sure it should be a Netflix series. Me and three of my very best creations.

2023. Worldwide, more terrible things continued to happen. Ignoring all that to focus on brightness and possibility, this is what happened for me.

      Month by Month

      January

      I wrote a letter to end a 26-year friendship. Some friendships, like marriages, are not meant to be forever. I will always miss the version of her who, for a long time, I called my best friend.

      February

      My daughter and her girlfriend became wife and wife. Taking the “Best Man” slot (with my power tool collection provided as evidence), I delivered a ten-minute comedy tribute to the happy couple known in this house as the “Fuck the patriarchy” speech. I also delivered the Kit Marlowe talk for the Shakespeare Authorship Roundtable that Covid had knocked off the roster in October.

      March

      Alexander Waugh and I were expert witnesses in the Moot Court Trial of William of Stratford at th…