EDITOR’S LETTER

If you’re a regular reader of Good Housekeeping, you’ll know that this magazine is all about positivity and that helping our audience get the best out of life is at the heart of absolutely everything we do. But even for us, it has sometimes been challenging to remain perennially optimistic over the past year and to keep focused on good times ahead. So, it is with a smile on my face that I can now confidently convey the growing sense of hope and joy both in my team and among readers contacting me (thank you, as always, for your thoughtful emails) and the feeling that a better period is here.

If you were asked to come up with someone to be a role model for joyfulness, there really wouldn’t be anyone better than our cover star Jo Whiley (page 14). Here is a woman who not only possesses a smile that really can light up a room, but she is also happy to take action to make the world a better, more loving place. I’m sure you’ll have heard about Jo’s campaign to get adults with learning disabilities prioritised in the vaccine roll-out and she talks to us about how ‘it’s the most important thing’ she’s done in her life, and how she has kept brave, strong and positive through the rollercoaster of challenges that have come at her. I love the trick she uses to get herself in the right frame of mind if she’s faltering: ‘If I need to be strong, I’ll say, “Okay, I’m going to be Michelle Obama today,” or if I need to be kind, “I’m going to be Julie Andrews today.” It really helps.’

Jo unquestionably seized the day with her campaign and I think this is something many more of us are now doing in all sorts of ways. In our feature If Not Now, Then

When? (page 56), readers Sally, Feyi and Emma tell us how they have each pivoted their lives during the pandemic to bring themselves a new sense of purpose. I found their stories really inspiring and hope you do, too.

But, of course, finding hope and joy doesn’t have to be about making big changes; as we often say at GH, simple pleasures and creating small moments of happiness are equally as important. And there’s plenty here to fuel those moments over the next month, from cooking something delicious on the barbecue when the sun comes out (page 127) to creating a showstopper cake (page 142)! And, of course, with the outdoors beginning to bloom, we have oodles of gardening ideas (page 106) for you, too, plus tips for how to bring the outside in (page 96).

Whatever the coming month has in store for you, I do hope it brings you some lovely moments of joy. Enjoy!