i went to a sarah party!

If the idea of a big house totally full of people named Sarah makes you tremble in fear, you are a very sensible person! Sarahs were out in full force at a brilliant party in Hackney this afternoon, and as samples go, it’s obvious that Sarahs are up a notch from the general population. And also obvious why our name means ‘princess’, since we adapt very easily to wearing tiaras and flouncing about.

The story is that Sarah Pletts and Sarah Jane Hall went to a Sarah Party at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada and decided to host their own in London. (Here’s the website they set up.) BBC Radio 4 got in on it and a reporter there (named Sarah) recorded it for a documentary. Those two Sarahs have SUCH an eye for detail! I spent the first ten minutes wandering around just being amazed at how many things could be Sarah-fied.

Here is one of our lovely hosts and another remarkable Sarah I met, Sarah Anderson, a writer who for 25 years ran the travel bookshop in Notting Hill that was made so famous by the film of the same name. The latest book she wrote sounds fascinating so I made her hold it up for the photo. Only when she mentioned it did I notice she only has one arm, which is the subject of her book, Halfway to Venus. (Read about it here.) I’ve just ordered a copy so I’ll report back when I’ve read it.

I also had an amazing massage from a holistic therapist named Sarah Alvarez and a brilliant Serendipity cocktail from a Sarah cocktail wizard. I met another Sarah trapeze artist, and a talented photographer named Sarah Leigh Lewis set up a little portrait studio in the very back of the garden and took photos of us all. And I talked with another Sarah who does us proud, Sarah Franklin, professor of bioethics at the London School of Economics. I came to the party with two magnificent editors, Sara Grant and Sara O’Conner from Working Partners, which was funny because we’d joked about setting up a Sarahs Club only weeks before I got the party invitation, and they thought I was coming up with a complicated prank when I told them about it.

A Sarah shrine:

Baby Sarahs:

This last person isn’t a Sarah but since he’s married to Sarah who was hosting the party, he dressed up as much like a Sarah as he could and his name tag says he’s a ‘serial Sara-ist’.