At the start of this year, I had a stressed-out family, a nervous cat, a substantial electricity bill because our heating was all electric, some neighbours who judging by the noises, kept horses in their flat on the floor above ours, a comfortable job, and a small but growing audience on the Substack newsletter I started last summer. As the year progressed, the world began to change in ways that some would have called unexpected but were, in hindsight, only a matter of time. The geopolitica