April Golden Giraffe For Writing

Every day, The Browser newsletter selects and presents the most intriguing writing from around the web, and every month we choose the best of the best, the pieces we’ll want to read and re-read forever.

And the Golden Giraffe for April 2019 goes to….

I Dream of Canteens

Rebecca May Johnson | Dinner Document | 30th April 2019

Perfection in small things. An IKEA cafeteria is civilisation done right. "There is a space for everyone; chairs and tables and cleaned toilets. There is time for everyone. No one is asked to leave and no one worries about out-staying their welcome. There are no laminated signs about eating food bought elsewhere. In the fine Western tradition of hospitality, dating back to Homer’s epics, no one who is hosted here will be asked to leave, and everyone will be fed and watered and allowed to wash without question" (2,250 words)

ALSO BRILLIANT: Women Clutching Their Purses

Vince Dixon | Code Review | 28th March 2019

“As a black person, you get used to people clutching a lot of things at the sight of you — subway riders securing their phones as you board the train, senior citizens preparing to use whatever they’re gripping in their pockets when they find themselves alone on a dark street with you. But those moments aren’t nearly as rife in the black experience as the phenomenon of women clutching their purses. It happened to me so often in 2017 that I spent the following year documenting every time I noticed it. I wanted to know how often it happened and, most importantly — Why? What triggered it?” (3,100 words)

ALSO BRILLIANT: Murder On The Allotment

Jenny Kleeman | Guardian | 13th April 2019

Classic fait divers worthy of Simenon. The gradual piecing together of additional information transforms a crime scene from a seemingly random killing into an almost inevitable tragedy. An elderly woman is strangled in a vegetable garden; the murder weapon is a starter-cord from a lawn-mower; probably, therefore, we are looking for a fellow-gardener with access to the communal tool shed; which proves to be the case. But what could possibly be the motive? This is where the real story begins ( 4,100 words)

Congratulations to Rebecca, Vince and Jenny! We hope you’ll enjoy their writing as much as we did.

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