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The Obsessive Diary

The diary of a literary obsessive

I write a diary and publish it. What could possible go wrong... eleanoranstruther.substack.com

society & culture books

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6:57

Yoot

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/02/20

So he’s been arrested. I might have been the last person in the UK to hear this, my day being spent well away from ticker-tape streaming breaking news and anything resembling The State of Things bar the small and flighty references made by me and P as we walked in the woods, marvelling at moss. I’ll start at the beginning. It’s reading week and the farm has been peopled by a herd of Yoot, friends of B arriving by train and bus and car. In the run up I did a lot of shopping, three goes at the

48:39

Live with Eleanor Anstruther & London Writers' Salon

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/02/18

Thank you Angie Browne, Billy Bumbo, Lindsey Trout Hughes, Isabel Peralta, Kristin Austin, and many others for tuning into my live video with London Writers' Salon! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

65:17

Who By Fire - in conversation with Mary Tabor

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/02/13

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

7:31

There Will Be This

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/02/13

On the tube yesterday it struck me, this splintering of reality, so many versions, one for every passenger moving along the platform. It wasn’t always that our politics divided us, there have been eras when a shared reality went all the way up the tree and only at the very edges did one person say the world is flat while another said it was round. Mostly we shared a lens. Mostly we saw things, in larger groups that is, from the same angle. I sat on a bench remembering how mice used to run about the

77:10

In conversation with Erica Drayton

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/02/07

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

62:52

In conversation with Petra Khashoggi

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/02/04

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

58:50

In conversation with Diane Woodrow

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/31

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

5:00

Increasingly, there is poetry

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/29

Increasingly, there is poetry. From Andrea Gibson‘s every time i ever said i want to die, to Sherman Alexie‘s Black Box. Yesterday I met with the man who chose a phone call while 4,000 miles distant as an apt way to end an eight year relationship. We hadn’t spoken since that moment. I needed time to calibrate. Our relationship had been so fuelled by rage and passion, such complicated and huge emotions, so much love, so I thought; I loved him. But I didn’t want the ending to be like that, my ending,

67:53

In conversation with Kelly Thompson

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/28

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

66:12

In conversation with Susie Mawhinney

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/24

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

73:45

In conversation with Clover Stroud

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/21

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

3:10

Yes

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/20

I’m tired. It’s been a lot. It’s only January. And then I speak to my friends in the states and the grief and rage comes in pins through their faces on the screen and pierces me too. It’s only January. Yesterday Jojo came for lunch and we laughed about stupid funny things and she told me some tragedies and we shared vegetable soup and sausages and lemon drizzle cake and walked in the easy cooling mist up to the stones then further, higher up into the woods. She said England had become the best

72:15

In conversation with Marlon Weems

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/17

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

60:20

In conversation with Elizabeth Day

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/14

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

63:26

In conversation with Matthew Long

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/14

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

75:44

In conversation with Sally Reid

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/10

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

74:22

Because Creativity - it’s not about the money, with...

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/09

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

60:53

In conversation with Geraint Anderson

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/07

Be a winner! Pre order Geraint Anderson ‘s latest book, How To Con Friends And Manipulate People This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eleanoranstruther.substack.com/subscribe

5:06

The Handbook on 18-25

The Obsessive Diary ·

2026/01/04

“Small children, small problems. Big children, big problems,” said my friend on the phone last night. We’re in the era of 18 - 25 when they’re not kids anymore that can be reined in and put to bed, when they have the reins themselves and are learning to use them. You wouldn’t hand a new driver the keys to a Ferrari, would you? They have to start on a moped at best, “a Reliant Robin” as Margaret commented when I had the same conversation with her later. But these young people in our lives are off

3:04

Thank you

The Obsessive Diary ·

2025/12/31

Dear Everyone,These last three months have been hail stones, this diary an entry of sorrows and however much I’ve wanted to turn up with ta dah! a break in the clouds it wasn’t possible. (Isn’t the urge to please crazy?) But I can turn up with thanks. I know what I’ve been going through is the same as everyone else. I know my hurts have matched yours. I’ve been expressing it all here and people have said it’s helped them to see it articulated, which is gratifying and a relief because god knows

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