Winter is coming – and so is my 50th birthday. It’s time to eat all the pastries and grab all the joy | Emma Beddington

I’ve had enough of depriving myself. Give me a holiday, give me Campari, give me a soft, happy body

Support for seasonal self-love comes from an unexpected quarter: the French daily Libération has issued a plea for us to embrace our “winter buddy”. That’s a soft, friendly winter body, forged of chestnut-based desserts, cheese and chouquettes, those sugar-topped mini choux buns they sell by the dozen in French bakeries (I’ve never seen a basket of them that didn’t make me yearn to unhinge my jaw and consume it in one gulp, like a python with a nest of bird’s eggs).

This winter buddy stuff is pure French fancy. The article conjures a wild, wish-fulfilled universe, in which having a bit of solstice padding makes you sexually irresistible rather than drawing barbed comments from your mother-in-law. I bet French intellectuals will remain whippety slim and elegant, though it’s reassuring to realise they’re probably dreaming of raclette, that nutritionist’s nightmare of molten cheese, potato and charcuterie.

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Winter is coming – and so is my 50th birthday. It’s time to eat all the pastries and grab all the joy | Emma Beddington

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