Bits and bobs (bookish and otherwise)

A bit of a rambly sort of post today I'm afraid. (Inspired perhaps by Elaine at Random Jottings, who does a wonderful line in the occasional off-topic random ramble). I don't feel hugely in the mood for writing anything particularly bookish but I still feel like writing. And first of all I want to say thank you very much to everyone for their kind messages on my 16th October post. It is always a sad occasion but I think everyone who knew Emily tries to make something positive out of the day - her Mum and sister went to see the Railway Children at Waterloo (something I'm keen to do), and another friend went to a firework display. We had a lovely day with John Rutter, who is an absolutely fantastic leader of singing workshops and a genuinely nice man. We spent the morning singing a variety of sacred anthems from across the centuries, interspersed with stories and anecdotes from John, and then spent the afternoon singing through his Requiem, and then his arrangement of spirituals called Feel the spirit. He has a new CD out, and I dropped some big hints about it for Christmas.

We the had an extremely relaxing Sunday, apart from the fact that I went to an exercise class! I haven't done any formal non swimming exercise in absolutely years (apart from my functional cycling and walking and running up and down stairs). But I am very bored of staring at the tiles on the bottom of the pool as I swim up and down, so when I heard about a new class at the swimming pool, I thought I would give it a go. This was Get Latin Fit, a latin dance inspired keep fit class. Apart from the fact that the instructor was petite and curvy, and I, am tall and skinny and felt like a spider, I quite enjoyed it and might even go again.

I read two books - Susan Hill's incredibly evocative and moving Service of clouds, which was quite unlike any of her mystery books, and then Grey skies, green waves, by Tom Anderson, which I spotted in the library and brought home for K. It is a book about surfing, which is proving somewhat of an obssesion for K at the moment, since he had a surfing lesson for his birthday, and he raced through the book but I also found it fascinating. I carried on with my cross-stitch, completing the second mini Christmas tree in four days; I'm trying to make some cross-stitch Christmas cards (more on this later), but I think I may get a little bored with trees soon. Might see if I can beat last night's time of 2 1/4 hours to complete one.

It was back to the grindstone today, but I managed to make some pastry before work in my Kenwood mixer (I realised when I went to sleep last night that if I wanted to make quiche for supper, then I'd have to do the pastry first thing, as it needs time to chill). I've never ever made pastry before, after all, I read Anthony Worrall Thompson saying that there was no point when readymade is so good, but, if I am ever to get on The Great British Bake-Off if there is another series, I'll need to be able to make pastry! Once I've finished writing this, it's off to see if I can get it to roll out, and then will fill it with smoked salmon and broccoli and the usual egg/milk mixture. It is National Baking Week here in the UK this week, not that I need any excuse.

Back to normal service tomorrow - I did have a non baking cooking post written, but in light of the aforementioned National Baking Week, I may postpone that until next week.

16th October

The 16th October has been a day tinged with sadness for the last four years, as it is the anniversary of the death of one of my very dear friends. I wrote about Emily, and in particular some bookish memories, on this date last year, so I won't repeat myself too much again. Like last year, the best way to remember Emily seems to be to do something with Earl Grey tea, and fortunately I have had a slightly better experience than with last year's Earl Grey biscuits which I described in the comments on that blog post as "the consistency of lego bricks". This year, I contemplated some Earl Grey cupcakes, from my Primrose Bakery Cupcake book, but I'm not a huge cupcake fan, so when I discovered a recipe for a prune and earl grey tea bread, I thought I'd give that a go! It sounds a bit healthy, but spread with unsalted butter, it had a rather delicate flavour. The recipe came from Martin Dorey's Camper Van cookbook which I shall write about more in due course, as I've tried another fabulous recipe from it.

More excitingly, I managed to find decaffeinated earl grey tea-bags which I used in the recipe; I've not drunk caffeine for over three years now which has put off the consumption of earl grey in Emily's memory, so I shall be making a cup of that in a mug which I gave to Emily, and which her Mum gave back to me to remember her by.

In addition, I can report that I've now raised over £1500 with this year's epic swim, which added to the money raised last year with a less epic swim, means I've raised £3000 for Mind, the mental health charity, in her memory.

Emily liked singing, and I remember her encouraging me to join the choral society at the boys school down the road from our school in my last year at the sixth form, where I sang my first big choral work, Haydn's Nelson Mass - an absolutely terrific piece of music. Later on, when I was at university, Emily encouraged me to audition for the city choir when I discovered that they were rehearsing the Nelson Mass. So, finding out that one of my favourite choral composers, John Rutter, was running a singing day on 16th October, less than 2 miles from my house at the college where I used to work, and that the day would include a performance of his Requiem, I decided that it would be a wonderful way to mark the day, and I'm shortly off to celebrate my memories of our friendship, whilst wishing her peaceful rest from the difficult years that led to the end of her life.

Librarians in literature 2

I mentioned before all of my holiday breaks that I had been lent a bibliography of librarians in literature and that I had sought out some titles which had appealed to me from it in the hope that I would blog about them. Unfortunately, this sort of fell by the wayside, as I have now read three from my original list, but failed to write about any of them.

First up was That uncertain feeling by Kingsley Amis. Many of you will be aware of Kingsley Amis as the author of Lucky Jim, a classic university campus novel. I'd read Lucky Jim but always thought it compared unfavourably to other examples of the genre, such as Malcolm Bradbury's The history man or David Lodge's books. That uncertain feeling tells the story of John Lewis, a public librarian, who is pursued by one of his customers. It didn't surprise me as a plot device as many librarians I know have been stalked/harrassed! (fortunately not myself). What I liked most about the book was the description of John Lewis's marriage and insight given into that, but on the whole, whatever it was that I didn't really like about Lucky Jim was probably what I didn't especially like about That uncertain feeling. So if you liked Lucky Jim, then I would probably recommend this - it's good to see books about librarians! Apparently it has been made into a film with Peter Sellers and I wouldn't mind seeing that, can't think of too many films with librarians in.

Second was DE Stevenson's Young Clementina. I came across DE Stevenson last year, when I read the fantastic Miss Buncle's book (published by Persephone) and its sequels. I didn't enjoy the Bloomsbury Group Mrs Tim of the regiment so much, but I quite looked forward to reading this. And it was very good. I can't remember too much of the plot now I'm afraid and it's gone back to the library, which is a bit of a cop-out I'm afraid.

Thirdly, Business as usual by J. Oliver and A. Stafford. This was an absolutely hilarious book which I'd like to see back in print. It's based on the letters of a young girl who fills in the year before she plans to get married, by leaving home and taking up a job. Set probably in the 1950s, we follow her progress living in a bedsit, budgeting for stockings, and working her way up in the lending library of a department store. It's told through the letters that she writes to her fiance and parents and as the year passes she makes some interesting discoveries about herself and what she wants from life. It is a wonderful insight into the world of the commercial lending libraries.

I've still got another two librarians novels from the library to read, plus a Chalet School fill-in title which centres on a librarian, so hopefully there will be another post on the subject soon.

Portrait of the mother as a young woman (Delius)

I have to apologise to Periene Press for being so dilatory with the review of this wonderful book that they sent me; especially as I frequently end up chatting to them on twitter (what lovely people!). Part of the problem was that although they sent it to me at the beginning of August, and I read it then, the title was embargoed until its release at the end of August (fair enough, you don't want everyone getting excited about a book that is not yet out). I then mislaid the book - it turned out to be in my secret-under-one-of-my-desks-at-work bookshelves (an overflow of books read at lunchtimes and emergency supply of books), but because of building work, I'd not been at that desk very much. I was very relieved when it turned up as I couldn't think where it was!

First of all, a word about Peirene Press. Probably regular blog readers will already be familiar with them, as they are extremely kind to bloggers, passing out books for review quite extensively, which creates a vibe around each title (and it's nice to be able to discuss a book with fellow bloggers, as often we don't read books at the same time). They are a publishing house printing translations of contemporary European literature, predominantly short books, and in a way, they are doing what Persephone books have done for another often overlooked genre, promoting it more widely. I have to say that whilst I was already reading the sort of literature that Persephone publish, I would not be reading that published by Peirene - it is a little beyond my immediate radar, so I thank them for this. I have not spotted any of their titles in bookshops as yet, probably not looking hard enough, but I hope that they are there as it may encourage other people to read wonderful books that may be beyond their usual reading sphere.

Onto Portrait of the mother as a young woman. It's difficult to add much to the excellent reviews I've already seen of the book, which describe its lyrical language and the amazing construction whereby the narrative is a single sentence, lasting for 117 pages. Set in Germany in 1943, it's the story of a young woman coming to terms with the reality of the war and the fact that her husband may not return, and describing her experiences of living under the Nazi regime. What is wonderful about it is that it is essential a stream of consciousness of her thought which gives far more insight into her world than any other form of narrative could. I am sure a large part of this is due to the excellent translation which did not feel at all clunky.

I've been lucky enough to borrow and enjoy the other two Peirene titles, Stone in a Landslide, and Beside the Sea, the latter which I found hugely compelling, and I am looking forward to seeing what they will bring out next.

Three new acquisitions

Well, I haven't exactly gone back on my no-book-buying, but I was extremely lucky to recieve three new books last week (all of which have sadly gone unopened; I'm afraid I was absent at the end of last week due to some bad family news on my fiance's side, which somehow seemed to occupy my time and thoughts too much to do anything constructive readingwise/anythingwise/certainly blogging wise).

However, I would like to thank my friend Claire, at Paperback Reader, for two of these books. Claire spent two weeks doing work experience at Random House (which you can read a little about here) and she sent me two books which she thought I'd like.

Firstly, Goodbye to Berlin, one of the gorgeous Vintage classics (and you can see quite how fabulous the cover is in the picture at the bottom of this post). I read this book just before starting my A Levels; my history teacher wanted us to read something about the Weimar Republic before we started to study it - it was a fabulous idea as it really introduced me to the idea of putting things in context by reading outside of textbooks. With the Christopher Isherwood revival earlier this year when A single man was at the cinemas, it's definitely timely to read it again.

Secondly, The whoopie pie book. As you know, baking is something that I love, and Whoopie Pies are right on trend - this year's cupcakes. I got quite excited about the idea of them in the summer, but never got around to baking any, so I will surely be having a go at these very soon.

Finally, Nella Last in the 1950s. Ok, yes, this was a purchase, but it was a pre-order, and according to one of my bookish colleagues, they don't count (well, I know they do, and have argued with her over this, but for the purposes of this blog post they don't). I mentioned earlier that I coveted this book; I immensely enjoyed the last two volumes, and think that this may well be the thing to occupy me on my evenings alone this week.

Great British book of baking

Regular readers will not be surprised to learn that I was absolutely glued to the recent Great British Bake-Off on television. It was a fantastic programme where contestants each programme had to make a variety of things, each time centring on a different area of baking - we started with biscuits, progressed through cakes, did bread, pastry...it was absolutely wonderful! I also enjoyed the historical background given to cake baking, which added a more educational element to a programme which was essentially the X Factor of baking (but oh, how much more enjoyable than the X factor!).

I was very excited to find out that there was a book to accompany the series, and immediately ordered it from the library. When it arrived, the kindly library assistants let me borrow it even though I was already up to my limit of books (I got the impression that the sooner I borrowed it, the sooner it would be back for them to take home). I was a little disappointed that only a handful of the recipes baked on the series feature in the book (although I am looking forward to being able to have a go at that Mark's sticky marmalade loaf that reduced him to tears in the first episode), but actually the book, by the well-renowned baker Linda Collister, is an extremely comprehensive book of baking (it does what it says on the tin - haha!), with sections devoted to the areas covered in the television competition. The recipes are all introduced and there is some of the sociological/historical information that we had in the programmes. I immediately made the jam thumbprint cookies (but forgot to take a picture of them), and then moved onto the bread section where I made these amazing stilton and walnut rolls.

Other recipes that I am looking forward to trying are the cheddar and sundried tomato rolls, the chocolate shortbread, and perhaps the saffron buns which have far better instructions than the recipe in my favourite Cornish recipes book - maybe I'll actually have some success with them!

I would love to enter this competition if they do the programme again (and I'm not sure if they would...), but in all honesty I don't think my baking is sufficiently technically good or innovative to make the grade.

Gingerbread couple

Just a quickie post today; it's a busy week, but I thought you might like to see the gingerbread men that K and I decorated at the weekend. K had the wonderful idea of decorating one to look like him, so I did one that looks like me (well, you can tell it's me due to the combination of cardigan and sparkly engagement ring!). K is in his running kit (and he does have yellow running shoes).

We did some other ones too to keep us company - I like the one with the chest hair best!


I just don't see how K is going to manage to eat me though!

Puffin postcards

I mentioned a little while ago how much I coveted the 100 Postcards from Puffin - I loved the 100 Postcards from Penguin, and have spent many happy hours flicking through the box and finding appropriate cards for every occasion. Because it was slightly before my current frugal phase, I did actually give in and pre-order them (it wasn't technically a book), and they arrived at the weekend.

Lovely! They're a bit different from the Penguin postcards, in that they are likely to trigger huge waves of nostalgia as you see books that you read with the exact same covers as the copies you had as a child, but also as you see books which you read with different covers. I remembered, looking through the boxes, how many of my very favourite books were Puffins and I pulled a few of them out here:


There were also plenty of books which I hadn't heard of, and I particularly liked these two, which sum up two of my interests:

It will be difficult to part with these, but I shall be using them for my correspondence over the next couple of months and have already given my first one (Watership Down) away.

The month of September

Joan over at Flowers and Stripes does a lovely summary of her month each time, and it is something that I enjoy reading and have thought that I would like to do. How easy it is when you don't keep a diary to let things slip away from you.

The month of September began finding out that the Great North Swim was cancelled and entering a 3.8km swim.
We had a lovely week in the Lake District, following in the footsteps of Arthur Ransome, walking, swimming and playing with a log fire in our cottage.
Made Ken a gold leaf decorated birthday cake.
Ate out at Loch Fyne for the first time.
Returned to work, tried to catch up after having had 2.5 weeks off, but then had another long weekend and a visit to Cornwall.
Watched the sun set over the sea from our hotel room and ate skate for the first time.
Thought about stopping blogging but ended up starting blogging again.
Started to make plans for the Autumn and for Christmas - booked tickets to see ballets.
Back to work properly, getting things ready for the start of term and reopening my reading room closed for building works.
Miles and miles of swimming before work.
Planning frugality until the end of the year to save for wedding - started drinking instant coffee in the week, not pleasant.
A housewarming party in the Cotswolds.
3.8km swim in 15C water which took 1 hour and 25 minutes and enabled me to raise over £1250 for Mind - still hoping to get to £1500.
Followed by the worst cold that I ever had - a whole day in bed, listening to 3 Enid Blyton audiobooks, and discovering that I can download audiobooks directly onto my ipod touch.
Starting an introductory certificate in management and enjoying doing some studying again (and having a bit of time out of the office)
Reading my first Wilkie Collins (The dead secret) and the new Shopaholic book (both excellent).

In October I'm looking forward to...
Frugality.
No buying books and more instant coffee than trips to Pret. In theory. And a glow of saving some money.
A singing day with John Rutter.
Visiting my Dad in his new house.
A busy few weeks at work.

From comfort reading to comfort television and comfort eating...

I meant today to write about the new Shopaholic book (Mini shopaholic) which one of my colleagues had kindly left on my desk for my return to work; we both hoped it would cheer me up, but when I got home I was too tired to do anything beyond lie on the sofa.

I did manage to put on the television last night and caught the first episode of the latest series of Nigella. I have mixed feelings about Nigella's cookery programmes - I think they are more entertaining than anything else and one can rely on the usual outcry by the critics regarding the "food porn" nature of the programme. But, it filled half an hour.

I *do* however like Nigella's cookbooks, well, specifically I like her book, How to be a domestic goddess (I have problems with most regular cookbooks since they are often at least half-filled with recipes containing meat which I don't eat, but this is rarely so much of a problem with a baking book). I also have her Christmas book, although I've only had it for one Christmas, so it is as yet to become as firm a favourite. I've been quite tempted by her latest book, as it has been half price in Waterstones for about a fortnight, but my current economic climate has forced me to resist.

However, I recently spotted a recipe from the book on a blog for a coconut and cherry banana bread, so with plenty of bananas that were going off (we'd bought them for refuelling after our swim), I thought it was time to make it. (In fact, it was the sight of browning bananas and my insistence on turning them into cake that proved to me that I had turned the corner in my recovery from my nasty cold).

It was pronounced very nice, and I'm minded to make it again, although it is a bit more extravagant than a regular banana bread. I'm also wondering about using that combination of flavours in a Verity friendly recipe (since I don't eat dairy or gluten), by making a coconut, cherry and banana flapjack.

It's shown here with a coconut cake that I made for my fiance last weekend, a recipe from a BBC Good Food 101 bakes and cakes book that I'd made before. I'd run out of butter so I had to use Pure (vegan spread) for the icing, but it gave it a wonderful texture and he said that he couldn't really tell the difference.