Grit your teeth, find inspiration and get ready for 2024! Was there anything good about 2023? It’s 8.30am on Christmas Eve 2023, a blustery, grey and unseasonably mild morning. It’s very quiet, but Christmas lights have begun to glimmer in a few windows. Over in the park, two women walking their dogs wave at each other and then stop for a chat. A grandmother brings out a toddler to play on the swings and a cat sits hopefully on a doorstep, waiting to be admitted. The only disturbance comes from male blackbirds squabbling over food. There’s nothing unusual here, it’s a peaceful and familiar British suburban scene. But when the morning news comes on the radio, it’s almost unbearable. The world is covered by dark clouds, horrors upon horrors are reported from the Middle East, the ‘futile logic of war’ seems to have domination and our own relative safety can bring feelings of guilt for those of us whose lives are a comfortable exception. As 2023 ends, women and children in so many places a