The Monday Media Diet with Fedora Abu

On Belmond, Jason Okundaye, and Bath in the UK

Fedora Abu (FA) is a London-based editor. She writes a Substack newsletter about style, culture and contemporary life called Late Filing. -CJN

Tell us about yourself.

I’m an editor living in London. I feel like the word ‘editor’ in the broadest sense best encompasses what I feel most fulfilled doing, whether that’s polishing up copy or picking out outfits for friends. My last in-house role was at Mr Porter, and now I contribute pieces on style, culture, beauty and design to Kinfolk, Sunday Times Style, Esquire and a couple other magazines. I also do a fair bit of partnership content, copywriting and ‘brand storytelling’, and I unashamedly love that more strategic side of my work.

My main focus right now is my Substack, Late Filing. The official line is that it’s a ‘London-based newsletter about style, culture and contemporary life’, and it covers a real mish-mash of subjects. There are reports and reviews and shopping edits and short essays. I’ve written about beauty treatments and modern dating and restaurants. I’ve interviewed women who’ve worked in both New York and London about their salaries. Honestly, for many years I’ve found writing to be a bit of a slog – I prefer the satisfaction of having written – but this has really reignited my love for it.

Other than that, I’m proudly British-Nigerian but I’m also obsessed with French, Italian and Arabic culture. I spend most weekends at museums and nice pubs and the farmers’ market, and I’m quite good at Sudoku.

Describe your media diet.

It’s gluttonous, which I guess is typical of anyone who’s in the industry. The first thing I do every day is open the Guardian website. I read The Times (mostly for its Life & Style coverage), and the New York Times is always open on my laptop. A couple months ago I bought a Washington Post subscription just for the Style section. I subscribe to Puck primarily for Lauren Sherman’s Line Sheet but I also like Marion Maneker’s Wall Power and Dylan Byers’ In the Room. I think Puck’s whole proposition is genius. I recently reinstated my Airmail subscription. Nowadays, the only publication I really buy in print regularly is FT Weekend (where I interned many moons ago). I think the FT is the best newspaper in the world. I used to be a religious reader of Vanity Fair in print too, so I’m excited to see what comes of its new era.

I read a bunch of Substacks but my favourites are Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me, Soft Power by Marisa Meltzer, Found LDN and Amy Odell’s Back Row. Those are the ones I pay for. For podcasts, I subscribe to far too many to list, including almost all of the news and current affairs ones out there, but I listen to The New York Times’ The Daily, The Guardian’s Today in Focus and Puck’s The Powers That Be most days. I’ve been listening to How Long Gone for a few years, and I’ve recently got into Mixed Signals by Semafor. And when I’m being good, I try to keep up my Italian by listening to Will Media’s The Essential, which summarises the global headlines in a few minutes.

What’s the last great book you read?

I’m not usually looking to have my life reflected back to me in fiction. The more escapist the better, really. But earlier this year I read Jo Hamya’s Three Rooms – about a young Black graduate trying to find work and navigating the London rental market – and I found it incredibly emotionally resonant.

What are you reading now?

I bought a copy of Graydon Carter’s memoir from the Airmail shop when I was in New York a few months ago and I’m just getting round to it now. One of my journalist friends has just finished Empire of the Elite so we’re going to swap when I’m done and then discuss.

What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?

That would be the FT Weekend and I tend to spread it out over the Saturday and Sunday. I always do the FT HTSI first, usually from cover to cover. Then I go to Life & Arts and scan over it and pick out the most interesting features, and then read the film reviews and the columns on the back page. Then I’ll flip through the FT Magazine, read the food & drink section, and earmark some of the long reads for later in the week. Finally, I’ll skim through House & Home. I use the financial pages to wrap gifts.

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

Sarah Manavis in The Observer and Jason Okundaye in the Guardian. Also Juno Kelly – she’s the person I have the most stimulating discussions with about everything from dating to internet culture to mental health, so I’m very excited to read her new Substack.

What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone?

The Gophr courier app has saved my life on multiple occasions.

Plane or train?

Train. I’m not sure it’s possible to fly economy and enjoy the experience. To be quite honest, the trains in the UK are pretty dire too, but I’d love to do one of the panoramic train journeys across Switzerland or any of the Belmond trips.

What is one place everyone should visit?

Bath in my mind is one of the great European cities. I’ve convinced myself that it’d be impossible to ever feel sad living somewhere that beautiful, and it’s probably the only other place in the UK I could see myself settling down outside of London. Beyond all the wonderfully preserved Roman and Georgian history, it’s got a thriving design scene and lots of lovely independent shops. I last visited a couple years ago around New Year’s Eve and it was especially charming at that time of year. I’d highly recommend The Yard, where I stayed, and Beckford Bottle Shop for dinner.

Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.

For a while, I’ve been researching a project about a historical figure who very briefly lived in Harlem in the 1920s, which led me on a bit of a tangent and sparked a real fascination with the history of the neighbourhood. Obviously this decade marks the 100-year anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance and so there’s been so much coverage and plenty for me to dive into. I thought the New York Times’ series last year was incredible, and it opened up a whole new world of artists, writers and organisers. Earlier this year, I became completely obsessed with the photography of James van der Zee. In September, I attended a talk at the Southbank Centre about the centenary, which led me to the cartoonist E. Simms Campbell. It’s not so much a rabbit hole as an endless journey of discovery fuelled by this one cultural movement. (FA)