Hannah jane parkinson biography of albert

The Joy of Small Things is a collection of essays by Hannah Jane Parkinson drawn from her popular column in the Guardian. After reading J.B. Priestly’s 1949 book Delight, in which the famously curmudgeonly author penned short essays on the things that brought him delight, Parkinson found herself inspired to do the same.

And so, amidst the personal and political chaos of 2018, she sat down to write about the little sparks of joy that broke up her days, to pick out “the flowers in the tangle of weeds.” Each topic that Parkinson expounds upon is small in scope but huge in happy-making, and she somehow picks out the very things that will make you smile in recognition and nod in agreement.

Ice cream vans, clean bedding, potted plants, the perfect pen… reading on the beach, staying over, fixing things, being inside when it’s raining… is there anything better than being reminded that these pockets of goodness exist all around us, within arms reach?

With each essay clocking in at just