EDITOR’S LETTER
As you open this, the first issue of Good Housekeeping to hit the newsstands in 2021, I hope it’s just what you need to see you through winter’s dark days, as it’s packed to the brim with brilliant mood-boosters. The team and I share our personal spirit-lifters (page 36), and I hope you fancy trying some of them out: everything from getting dressed up in bright and bold clothes (yes, even if you have nowhere to go), penning some poetry and getting lost in audiobooks (my own current passion) to trying out kindness meditation. Elsewhere, we have scores of small ideas and clever little buys to spread joy. I love the fashion team’s promise of shoes to guarantee ‘happy feet’ (page 28), and, with the help of our homes team, there are tips on creating a personal reading corner (page 104): the perfect place to enjoy devouring GH!
Of course, positivity also depends on feeling healthy and strong and, after the 2020 we had, we all know how vital it is to focus on our wellbeing. In the autumn, we carried out some detailed research with well over 2,000 of you to discover your key health concerns and where you feel you most need help. Based on this, we’re bringing you our biggest ever Health Special (from page 76). I really hope you find the expert advice on exercise, ageing and good nutrition useful. With a whole month of recipes packed with goodness and not skimping on flavour (page 125), culinary inspiration certainly shouldn’t be a problem. And I’m absolutely sure that you, like me, will be fascinated to hear from some of the country’s top female medics and scientists in this month’s Women Who Lead article (page 40) – their personal wellbeing habits and the lifestyle changes they’ve made in the wake of Covid-19 are surely worth emulating.
So, who best to front an issue that’s all about positivity, vitality and a zest for living? I couldn’t think of anyone who embodies these qualities more than actor, presenter and now dancer Caroline Quentin. Caroline gives us a no-holds-barred interview and I hope you’ll enjoy getting to know her better. What she says about the advice she’d love to give her younger self (not to be so tough on herself) really resonates, as does her boundless appetite for life. Looking towards the future, she says: ‘I’m going to do more of the things I genuinely love doing and not sweat the small stuff.’ What a great mantra for us all to try living by as we begin to navigate our way into 2021.
See you next month,