Lay your shadow on the sundials

Hello loves!

I've been recently obsessed with this poem by one of my all-time favourite poets, Rainer Maria Rilke:

Autumn Day (translated by Galway Kinnell & Hannah Liebman)

Lord: it is time. The summer was immense.
Lay your shadow on the sundials
and let loose the wind in the fields.
Bid the last fruits to be full;
give them another two more southerly days,
press them to ripeness, and chase
the last sweetness into the heavy wine.
Whoever has no house now will not build one anymore.
Whoever is alone now will remain so for a long time,
will stay up, read, write long letters,
and wander the avenues, up and down,
restlessly, while the leaves are blowing.

I think it's the line, "The summer was immense" that gets me, the exhausted heaviness of "Lord: it is time". It's bittersweet, both grateful and weary. The slow sweet retreating of Autumn.

I, too, have been feeling both grateful and weary. I had a beautiful few weeks off in southern France doing very little in except eating bowls and bowls of fresh figs, harvested directly off the three trees in my partner's aunt's garden.

I've been back in London for two weeks now, delighted that it's finally raining after a brown dry-crisping summer. But too many responsibilities accumulated in my time off, including my dear mum having had a pretty major accident and breaking both her legs and also – unrelated – my cat needing a series of stressful vet visits (they're both okay! but it's been a time!). And many other things, most of them joyful, life-affirming (like teaching a summer writing class) but too too many, and all at once. All I want to be doing is working on the second draft of my next novel (I'm currently calling it You'll Feel Different When It's Yours). I'm managing to chip through it, a chapter a day, dutifully defending my mornings for writing time, but the rest of the day – yeesh – I'm loose as a wind in the fields. I'm hoping that the intense period passes soon and leaves me in my favourite alone place with just the writing and the quiet and the days drawing dark around me.

Lord, it is time. The summer was immense.

I have a few things to tell you about!

The Manage Your Money Update IS HERE!!!

Okes, it's out now! The new, improved, souped-up, expanded, fully-revised, glowed-up, revved-up, dialled-up, growned-up South African edition of Manage Your Money Like a F-cking Grownup. You can get it at Takealot, Exclusive Books, Loot, or literally any good bookshop in SA.

I made a 7 minute long video about why I felt it was time for an update, and exactly what's changed, if you want all the deets.

I have also been working hard behind-the-scenes to update all of the money resources on the website. I'd hoped to have them all done before the book came out (including my masterpiece, a total overhaul of the Money Dashboard) but alas, the inexorable passage of time beat me to it.

There is a bunch that IS ready, though, so may I present ...

• A shiny new home for all the money resources so they're easier to find, one divided up for people reading the book and one divided up by theme (like debt and investing).
• An updated 2026 roundup of the best SA apps and tools to manage your money (RIP 22seven, hello Finwise).
• The best investment and savings accounts in SA and exactly where it's cheapest to buy them (my current MVP, the 10X Total World Stock Feeder ETF bought through EasyEquities).
• Where to find affordable counselling/therapy (YES this is a topic related to money, I'll fight you on this).
• A detailed action plan for cutting your electricity bills, including how to calculate whether it makes sense for you to install a PV solar system.

I've tried something new for that last one, and recorded a whole 20-minute YouTube version to see if you like watching videos more than you like reading. Please excuse my very awkward Millennial pauses, this is an experiment. Let me know if you want me to do more things like that/become a full-time Tiktokker. I think I could do it?! I just need to learn how to dance, right?!?

And just so you know, I don't do affiliate links or any of that shit. These are all my actual opinions. If you disagree with something, or think I've missed something, please let me know.

There's a lot more coming soon, including resources for young people trying to find their first job (a nightmare), a money philosophy for freelancers/entrepreneurs/artists and other insane people, and YES a fully updated Money Dashboard (it's going to be so gooooood).

Saffas, I'm so grateful to those of you who've taken this journey over the past (can you believe it) EIGHT YEARS. This update is for you <3

Come talk about Femme Feral with meeee! (in the UK)

I'm doing some events in the coming months and I'd so love to see some of you there!

• 17 September, I'll be at Waterstones Islington gabbing with Rose Biggin, Joseph Elliot-Coleman and Alex Beaumont about our latest novels.
• 26-27 September, I'll be at Once Upon a Tyne in Newcastle (can't wait - I've never been!).
• 31 October, I'll be at the spoooooky Fellowship Festival in Brighton, with Goldsboro Books.

Come hang out!

Psst ... South Africans, I'm coming to visit you in November and lining up some Femme Feral and Manage Your Money chats. I'll share details soon.

Wishing you more figs than you can eat,

Sam