For the final episode of Substack on Film: London, we had the honor of staying with writer Plum Sykes at her country house in the Cotswolds.
As a former Vogue editor, Plum is known for having exacting taste. And having read Plum’s post where she ranked her houseguests by the gifts they’d brought, I was a bit nervous. I was visiting her as a representative of Substack, after all, and I didn’t want to choose the wrong gift lest it reflect poorly on the company. After fruitlessly trying to find something unique, I settled on what felt boring, but respectable: Aesop soap and hand cream.
Dajiana and I arrived in the evening and were squired about town by Plum in her trusty Land Rover. After a lovely dinner out, we drove to the house and found her daughter, Tess, sitting at the kitchen table working on a sewing project. Plum gave us a tour before turning in for the night and strongly recommended that we take baths in our respective private tubs.
The next morning, we woke up early and followed Plum around as she went through her routine: picking an outfit, visiting Tim the farmer, tending to her horses, and working on her Substack, of course. In Plum’s world, there is a right way to do everything, and we spent the day absorbing her hard-earned knowledge. A couple weeks later, she wrote a post inspired by our time together, and I was deeply relieved to learn that my gift and behavior had passed muster.
That’s a wrap for this season of Substack on Film! You can get more Plum on her Substack. Let us know where we should go next, in the comments.
