A perfect Sunday with...Gabby Hutchinson Crouch
Melancholy gorgeousness, the Magnus Archives, and hot, vain manic pixie dream boys
Every week, a top writer, artist or creator reveals how they’d fill their perfect Sunday, sharing their favourite comfort reads, movies, food… anything that would make their weekend great.
Today it’s the turn of Cursed Under London author Gabby Hutchinson Crouch.
Gabby’s perfect Sunday… brunch
Eggy bread. Nailed on. There is no comfort food like it, and no better breakfast or lazy lunch. Made with just bog-standard sliced white bread and fried in butter. Maybe a bit of ketchup with it, but usually it doesn’t need it.
Gabby’s perfect Sunday… read
A really good ghost story. I spent a lot of lockdown reading ghost stories. Love a bit of Susan Hill, but my girl Shirley Jackson is my absolute favourite. One of her short stories. Maybe The Tooth, or The Bus. Brr.
Gabby’s perfect Sunday… comic
A friend sent me his copy of Bloom by Kevin Panetta, which I inhaled in a single sitting. I also love the graphic novel of Nimona by ND Stevenson which I bought after adoring the movie. My absolute favourite Sunday Comic though is the fantasy sex comedy webcomic Oglaf. It’s updated every Sunday and is a world of silly, rude fun.
Gabby’s perfect Sunday… movie
Howl’s Moving Castle. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched it. It’s my go-to when I’m stressed or worried or in those weird limbo days straight after a bereavement. It’s a sweet, magical love story, gorgeously animated, about a cursed woman finding self-worth while also dealing with war, rivalries, cobwebs and the attentions of a hot, vain manic pixie dream boy of a wizard.
Gabby’s perfect Sunday... TV binge
BBC’s Ghosts. Again, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched the whole thing. It’s one of those shows I know I can happily watch with my teen kids and my mum. It has made me howl with laughter (Thomas seeing the unfinished portrait) and ugly cry (no spoilers, but if you’ve watched series 4, That Bit). Robin is possibly my favourite sitcom character of the past decade, he’s an incredible combination of simple clownishness and complex pathos, wrapped up in one hairy, stinky little guy.
Gabby’s perfect Sunday… podcast
Magnus Archives and Soundheap, for two completely opposite ends of the weird otherworld, connected-narrative-arc-told-through-short-stories comedy spectrum. Or if I just want music, I love BBC Sounds Morning After Mix.
Gabby's perfect Sunday… album
The OST from Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, by Jessica Curry. I love video game scores as art music, I’ll usually have some on while I’m working or going for a walk, and this score is probably my favourite. Melancholy choral gorgeousness.
Gabby’s perfect Sunday… treat
I am a lazy lazy writer, so a big lie in, followed by exactly three coffees while doing all the NYT word games. And then I just enjoy spending Sundays with my family, and my silly little pussy cat.
Cursed Under London by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch is out 4th July from Farrago Books.
The year is 1599. Fang, a grumpy, heartbroken traveller from the Ming Empire,
awakes from death to discover he’s not quite human any more. Nor is he a
zombie, vampire, werewolf or any of the other supernatural beings who roam the
segregated cities of Upper London and its dragon-ruled underground
counterpart, Deep London.
He stumbles upon Lazare de Quitte-Beuf, a people-pleasing popinjay of an actor
afflicted with the same strange mysterious curse, which means neither of them
can die. Thrown together by immortality, the two strangers set out to reverse the
spell, traversing the dangers of Deep London and encountering vampires, ghouls,
ogres, poets, púca, magical talking swans and the zombie of Christopher
Marlowe, all the while trying to ignore the intense connection between them.
As they are drawn further into the shadowy world of Deep London, they unearth
a dangerous plot which they appear to be right in the middle of. Needing to
reverse the spell and get on with being dead, the worst thing they could do, right
now, would be to fall in love...
GABBY HUTCHINSON CROUCH has a background in satire, with credits including Horrible Histories, BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, The Now Show, Dead Ringers, Spotlight Tonight with Nish Kumar & ITV1’s Newzoids, Lucy Porter’s In The Family Way (Radio 4), Thrillcast (2000AD) & Sue Perkins’ Earpedia (Audible Originals). Born in Wales, and raised in Derbyshire, she now lives in Canterbury. X/Twitter and Insta: @ScribLit, Tiktok: GabbyHCWrites. She is available for all media.