Kate Bush has shared her reflections on the past 12 months in a personal note to fans. 

The hitmaker, who topped the charts this summer with her 1985 single Running Up That Hitt (A Deal With God), reflected on various events including the war in Ukraine and the death of Queen Elizabeth II in the message, which was shared via her official website. 

In the post, titled ‘Merry Christmas’, she penned: “Every year seems to fly by a little faster. They say this happens as you get older, but there’s no doubt that the speed of life is accelerating at a greater rate than ever.

“It’s a bombardment, the horrific war in Ukraine, the famines, the droughts, the floods… and we lost our Queen. Many of my friends were surprised at how upset they were at her death especially as we aren’t royalists, but I think her passing became a focus for grief, for unexpressed loss that so many people had felt during the pandemic.”

Reflecting on her surprise success this year, on the back of the single’s appearance on the soundtrack to series four of ‘Stranger Things’, she continued: “It’s been a crazy, roller-coaster year for me. I still reel from the success of RUTH, being the No 1 track of this summer.

“What an honour! It was really exciting to see it doing so well globally, but especially here in the UK and Australia; and also to see it making it all the way to No 3 in the US. It was such a great feeling to see so many of the younger generation enjoying the song. It seems that quite a lot of them thought I was a new artist! I love that!”

Sharing her hopes for peace in the new year, she went on to write: “I wonder where on earth we’ll all be at the end of next year? I hope the war will end. I hope that the nurses will be in a position where they are appreciated – they should be cherished. 

“Let’s all hope that next year will be better than this one. I keep thinking about hope and how it was the last to fly out of Pandora’s box. Sometimes it’s all that seems to glow in the dark times we find ourselves in right now.”

Concluding the letter, she added: “I used a little robin in some of my Christmas gifts to friends this year. I felt that this humble little bird, which symbolises Christmas could also symbolise hope in the context of Emily Dickinson’s beautiful words: Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.

“I‘d like to think that this Christmas when joy is so hard to find, hope will perch in all our souls. Merry Christmas!”