2025: a bit of an annus horribilis
2026: who knows?
I’m a bit abashed to admit that I meant to write this piece at the end of last year or the beginning of this one. And it was meant to be a typical end-of-year piece with worthy reflections and serious lists of the top books I’d read and the best articles I’d written in 2025. But 2025 was a bit of an annus horribilis for me (as well as the world). Without going into overmuch detail, I faced lots of health and personal problems, some of which are still ongoing. I underwent some pretty hefty surgery in October, for one. It involved my bowels, among other viscera, and I’d had to have a colonoscopy beforehand—annus horribilis, indeed. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one. And there’s me already careening down the slope of ‘overmuch detail’.)
So I’ve been somewhat out of sorts this past year. I’m much better in many ways, now, but, as I mentioned, there is still a lot going on. One problem I’ve been struggling with is extremely low energy and a lack of motivation. This is not my usual laziness, and I don’t know how much of it is due to my health and other issues. I’m still not even sure what some of my health issues are. The investigations continue.
But I hope all this explains why I’ve been so lax in my writing, for this Substack as well as elsewhere, of late. I would promise that that’s all over and that I’ll be churning out polished, intelligent columns every week from now on, but I shouldn’t make promises I can’t keep. I can only try to do my best to write a bit more here (and elsewhere). The only thing I’ve really managed to keep up with is editing the Freethinker. And I think I’ve done that pretty well, despite everything. It is my job, after all.
And I did do some decent work last year, albeit mostly in the first half when things weren’t so bad. I’m pretty proud of my Freethinker review of a poetry collection about women’s resistance to theocracy in Iran, for instance. Published in May, it contains the following paragraph, which I won’t claim as prescient (yet):
Even amid the self-immolation of the world’s oldest and largest secular democracies (the United States of America and India, respectively), the people of Iran might just be ushering in a new one—and perhaps in doing so they will remind those in the so-called free world who are tired, lazy, and disaffected of the true meaning and value of liberty.
(Indeed, the mullahs quivering in their jackboots has been one of the more heartening sights of the past month and a half-ish.)
I also gave talks to a humanist group in Dundee and the Leicester Secular Society and delivered (in a way) a guest lecture at London Metropolitan University. Plus I interviewed Hamit Coskun, the persecuted and prosecuted Quran burner, and the journalist James Bloodworth. And I enjoyed hosting an (ongoing) series of Freethought History Webinars. A couple of other highlights: my commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo murders and my reflections on the death of Pope Francis. From the latter (indulge me, I’ve been ill):
About the nicest thing I can muster regarding Francis is that he was indeed less vile than his predecessor. A low bar, indeed, but credit where it’s due. It was also good to see him rebuking the Trump administration recently. Still, for all the fluffy words that occasionally came out of his mouth, Francis upheld an explicitly authoritarian, homophobic, and misogynistic institution. Nothing he did or said changed the bigoted core of the Church as enshrined in Canon Law. Fags are still guilty of the ‘foulest crime’ and bound for hell, but at least Pope Francis said some sweet things about us meanwhile.
Worst of all, Francis merely tinkered around the edges of the Church’s child sex abuse problem, doing nothing to fundamentally change a system which encourages abuse and its cover-up to this very day.
So, 2025 wasn’t all bad. And even now, having dragged myself to the keyboard to speedily (and guiltily) scribble out this little piece, I feel a tad more energised. The old wisdom is true: the hardest thing is to begin, but once you have, everything falls into place. I also found this to be true when I penned a New Year message for the Freethinker last month, but then the anomie and the listlessness returned, so let’s not get over-excited. Still, small steps, small steps…
Lots coming up this year, though: another guest lecture, an opening address for ‘Hitchmas’ in April, a wedding (not, alas, my own). And lots of writing and editing to catch up on.
I also just recalled that I turn 30 next week. This is a source of dread and despair and existential anguish, so let’s move on.
I guess we shall just see how 2026 goes, both for me and for the world at large (on both counts, not very well, if we go by one recent sad event; see addendum below). Farewell and ta-ta for now. Thanks for letting me ramble. I’ll try to keep the old spirits up.
Addendum: In Memoriam, Neil Barber
Late last month, I learned of the death, far too young, of Neil Barber, a good man whom I knew slightly a few years ago and with whom I’d sporadically kept in touch. He was a mighty figure in the Scottish secularist movement, leading the Edinburgh Secular Society with great gusto for many years and being a kind of representative of the National Secular Society in Scotland. I was very happy to publish a piece by him in the Freethinker a couple of years ago, which I highly recommend. It is an evergreen defence of the values of secularism and it stands, I hope, as a sort of monument to Neil’s work.
He was more than an activist, of course. He was a beloved partner and friend and music teacher. He will be missed by many.
You can read his obituary here and, if you knew him, contribute messages and memories about him for his loved ones here, as I have done. If you didn’t know him, I hope that by reading his article and browsing those messages you will get to know him at least a little. I for one wish I’d known (and kept in touch with) him better.
In memoriam, Neil Barber, 1961-2026.