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Samira Ahmed the Diary My First Swim in Six Months, a Last Summer of Childhood, and Remembering Anne Brontë

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Samira Ahmed the Diary My First Swim in Six Months, a Last Summer of Childhood, and Remembering Anne Brontë Samira Ahmed The Diary My first swim in six months, a last summer of childhood, and remembering Anne Brontë didn’t expect to feel so emotional af- been facing since Trump was elected. “Have governesses based on her own experiences. ter one of my first swims in nearly six perspective as you’re going through it,” she The Tenant of Wildfell Hall speaks across Imonths. At 4pm on an August Tuesday I says. “And [do] not let this time shape what centuries about a woman escaping an abu- step into the arena of the Hathersage open- will be. So you’re in school. Be in school. sive marriage, and counters the enduring air pool in Derbyshire, see the still blue lanes Get your freaking education.” I can’t think myth that a good woman can reform a “bad” stretch 30 metres and feel the tears well up. of better advice for university students. man. I suggest that the Covid-19 months of After a wild and windy morning on Stanage enforced confinement – appreciating nature Edge and a walk to Little John’s grave in the Finding delight in the past on our doorstep, reading, volunteering and village churchyard, the sun comes out just A last summer means facing childhood’s helping our elderly neighbours – could be an as I walk into the art deco splendour of the end, but perhaps also its rediscovery as my opportunity to “think like a Brontë”. pool entrance. On my backstroke laps I look own children leave. I’ve been reading Doc- up at the edge of the elegant spectator stand tor Who Magazine cover to cover, as I’m on Voicing viewer unease and feel part of a grander age. its editorial review board. Now I realise how After months of asking, I’m thrilled to get It’s one of many highlights of a week in important its retro joy has become to me. confirmation that Newswatch is return- the Peak District, booked back in April with I notice what looks like a cast-iron steam- ing in September, after being taken off-air the hope that lockdown might be lifted by punk Dalek outside one of Cromford’s orig- in March because of the BBC’s Covid-19 then. We’re staying in the Unesco-listed site inal village shops. It belongs to Ian Jackson, studio staffing restrictions. The weekly around Richard Arkwright’s mill complex a fellow Gen X-er, who quit a job as an art TV programme, in which I put viewer con- in Cromford, near Matlock Bath, and take conservationist at Chatsworth to follow cerns about BBC News output to editors, genuine pleasure in wandering through the his heart and open Collectors Corner sell- has a full inbox. Not least viewer unease at Victorian gardens alongside the Derwent. ing vintage toys, comics and collectables reporters on boats sailing alongside over- There are families in the row boats and (the Dalek was made by his dad). My spirits loaded dinghies of refugees in the Channel. leather-clad bikers eating fish and chips; all lift as I walk inside. It’s part inspired by the of us equally thrilled to be in the self-styled feel of Emily’s shop in Bagpuss, he tells me. Big conversations in lockdown “little Switzerland” of the Peaks. My home I buy some Space 1999 and Blake’s 7 annu- Just before lockdown I won the Broadcast- for the week is one of Arkwright’s then-rev- als and imagine a photo of myself in sepia ing Press Guild award for Audio Present- olutionary terraced cottages for millwork- hugging them. er of the Year, partly for my Intelligence ers, restored by the Landmark Trust. As the Squared podcast, How I Found My Voice. lockdown has revealed the compounded ca- High praise indeed We’ve been recording series three via live lamities in overcrowded housing for those Returning from holiday, there are still kind video with an online audience through- without wealth, I was struck by its generous emails coming in from viewers who loved out the summer. Singer-songwriter Gloria windows filling it with light at all times of Art of Persia, my BBC Four series about Estefan joins me from her Miami study, day, giving both dignity and essential con- the cultural history of Iran. Two stand out. with a magnificent bookcase full of fam- ditions for homeworking weavers. From Michael Palin and Valerie Singleton. ily photos, the Cuban and American flags, My heart swells with pride. and the military Stars and Stripes that was Calling all students draped on her Vietnam Veteran father’s The whole week was planned as a “last Thinking like a Brontë coffin. I’m moved by the combination of summer” break with my two children be- Towards the end of the week I am the latest public statement and intimacy that this fore the younger heads off to join her elder guest in the Brontë Lounge, a regular online format affords. brother at university. I’ve nothing but admi- chat event run by the Bronte Parsonage Mu- Among the confirmed guests still to re- ration for how she and her generation have seum in Haworth, west Yorkshire, where cord is the former shadow chancellor John coped with the fiasco of this year’s A-levels. I’m creative partner for the 200th anniver- McDonnell. From the moment Chancellor They are like Neo in The Matrix: forcibly sary year of the youngest Brontë sister – Rishi Sunak opened up the Treasury cof- red-pilled to see through the fiction that ex- Anne. We’ll schedule physical events when fers, offering billions of pounds, includ- ams define your value. I’ve just watched the we know we can, but in the meantime I talk ing through the furlough scheme, to tackle Michelle Obama documentary Becoming, about my fascination with Anne’s Chris- Covid-19, I’ve been dying to know what in which a group of Native American high- tian socialism and her remarkably feminist McDonnell thinks of the state we’re in. l GOWAN c schoolers in Arizona ask her advice on how novels. In Agnes Grey she’s whistleblow- Samira Ahmed is a journalist and IAN M to survive the daily intimidation they’ve ing about the exploitative treatment of broadcaster at the BBC 28 AUGUST – 3 SEPTEMBER 2020 | NEW STATESMAN | 19.
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