Ella Risbridger

London

Author and Poetry Columnist at Freelance

Articles

Apple, Fennel, Sweetheart

1 month ago | ella.substack.com | Ella Risbridger

Important PSA before we begin: it has come to my attention that Substack is doing something a little fucky and that some— most? many? no idea?— people are not getting the emails if they have downloaded the Substack app.
Things! I! Loved! Lately!

1 month ago | ella.substack.com | Ella Risbridger

Hello, beloved friends. Once again, we are here. The kitchen is unpacked; the books are all in storage; the clothes are all in their bags. But the kitchen is unpacked, and there are small green shoots coming up through the earth in the garden. Sun through the French windows. Which, if you’re playing along at home, is Ella Risbridger Bingo. Or at least, Ella Risbridger Moves House Bingo. It’s weird that this is the third, maybe fourth, house move I’ve documented on this newsletter.
Don’t Make Me Laugh by Julia Raeside review - more monstrous men

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Ella Risbridger

Ali is a radio producer; Ed is a comedian. Ali is vulnerable; Ed is charming. Ali is desperate to be loved; Ed is ready to love her. And Ed is a predator. Ali is prey. Julia Raeside’s debut novel, Don’t Make Me Laugh, begins like a romcom, and ends like a different kind of fantasy: the kind in which people get what they deserve. In between, though, it feels painfully, precisely, beat-for-beat accurate. Sleazy Ed and bedraggled Ali are both so believable you could Google them.
Beans, Tomatoes, Chocolate, Broth

2 months ago | ella.substack.com | Ella Risbridger

You will want to make this, probably tonight. I am confident in this because it is the kind of cooking that reminds you why cooking is good: what I love about cooking is when something simple becomes something complex in this unearned way. Things from the cupboard, and one gently ageing tomato, became something rich and creamy and smoky and nourishing: something kind of Mexican-adjacent, Mexican-inspired, filtered through an English seaside kitchen in the depths of grey winter.
The Great Summer Books Round Up

2 months ago | ella.substack.com | Ella Risbridger

Hello! Welcome to the Big Summer Books Round Up! I hope you find what you need here! I have basically tried to give, like, pairings (yes Casey McQuiston is on this list) and triplets, with further reading if you want? Basically these are like little menus for you. What I love is when I read books in a row that kind of seem to speak to each other, and I wind up feeling bigger and better and more coherent and full of ideas, even when those books are different.
Crispy Nugget Katsu Curry

2 months ago | ella.substack.com | Ella Risbridger

Listen, friends, I know Thursday afternoon is a bad time to send out a newsletter— is it?— but this is your dinner sorted for tonight and you probably have 90%, maybe even 100%, of what you need already in your house. Is it blustery and autumnal where you are? It is here. This August galloped by in a series of insane choices and long meetings.
Smoky Crispy Red Thai Tofu Burgers

2 months ago | ella.substack.com | Ella Risbridger

I don’t really know where to begin with me and August, except that it’s complicated. It was always complicated with me and August. …I wish this was the beginning of my wistful YA novel (oh, but should I? could I?) but it is in fact the beginning of my most wistful month. I have mixed feelings towards the whole of August, a kind of low-key dread that starts about now and lifts like magic on 1st September.
How To Write, Chapter I

2 months ago | ella.substack.com | Ella Risbridger

Hello, friends. This is maybe my most-requested newsletter of all time, so here goes nothing: so you want to read about writing, huh? You want to read about How To Write? Well, me too. I am such a sucker for understanding how other people do this job. I always want to know how people write. This is partly because I am nosy (I also love any What’s In Your Bag/Fridge/Bedroom type article) and partly because this job is so lonely sometimes that I love to feel like I have colleagues.
Smoky Shallot & Rosemary Chorizo Carbonara

2 months ago | ella.substack.com | Ella Risbridger

Speak to me truly: how autumn are you feeling? Could you hit up a large and richly-scented skillet of glossy pasta speckled all over with crispy little nubs of chorizo and thin sweet ribbons of shallot? Have you got the blankets out? How early is too early to light the candles? The other three are rhetorical— or rather, I assume the answers are “some”, “duh”, “duh”— but the last one is serious business.
Ella, Help, I'm In Love With A Widow

2 months ago | ella.substack.com | Ella Risbridger

A little while ago someone wrote to me about being in love with a widow. This was the gist of the letter, anyway: there was more to it, there always is, but the gist was about loving someone who loved someone who is dead. How? How to do it? Is it possible? I wrote back and said I didn’t have any advice at the time.