mass observation by katharine eastman

In the right places there certainly are a lot of bluebells about, more than most previous years. Lots of orange tips too. In this report to future historians about what life was like in spring 2025 I can report that on my by now very overfamiliar walk to Salisbury yesterday the ground was still like concrete and I easily got away with my thin crappy trainers. In this overpopulated corner of an overpopulated country it still amazes me that on my walk, apart from when I was leaving town, and passing on the edges of another one, I met absolutely no one until I was actually approaching Salisbury, just within the first sighting of the cathedral spire.

She was a woman dog-walker, rather cheerful. Then a bit later it was a he - he was a grumpy old bloke who clearly would rather pretend that he hadn't seen me as we passed within inches of each other in the middle of that huge field you cross before you finally hit tarmac and the approach through Milford. Inside Salisbury itself, yet again, the mood was of non-engagement - people would rather not talk to strangers, probably for fear that they would accidentally say the wrong thing and be imprisoned.

This is my impression of Britain in spring 2025. However, I have to admit that I am getting reports from friends who say that when they go on little travels to other parts of Britain people are much happier and nicer and chat more, and the grumpiness I experience is probably just a localised thing - southern England. You may have noticed that beautiful cover photo of Liverpool, sent by a dear friend while she was up there having a lovely time with lovely strangers - what an awful thing it was for her to come back down here.

And I've been getting that all the time - Essex, Wales, Norfolk, London (sic), the Highlands ..... I've no idea Why or really even What, but I shall continue these Mass Observation-y observations forever regardless of the world's lack of interest, and after all interest is one of the first things that vanishes when people become depressed, it's a tricky trick to pull off the trick of being uninterested and also cheerful, but that is the way I am.

photo on the way to Salisbury yesterday, recorded this morning