Books: Capuchin classics

So it's no secret to anyone who reads this blog that I am a Nancy Mitford fan, as in fan short for fanatic. I know some people find her work snobby or even (horror!) irrelevant but I don't care, I would give my little toe to have her turn of phrase and I literally find opening her books like getting into the biggest bed with the downiest, most cloud like duvet imaginable.

Some writer's most famous books aren't their best books (clearly Jane Austen can do little wrong but I would argue the lesser known Persuasion is more of a towering great than say Mansfield Park, which many a girl has trudged through for a levels). In Nancy's case I do think the best known Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate are her greatest achievements- although Don't Tell Alfred is also a marvel- but I think everything she does is gold.

Happily a great publisher called Capuchin Classics publish some of Nancy's lesser known delights, including Highland Fling, Christmas Pudding and Pigeon Pie. Prior to my discovery of this company I only owned Pigeon Pie of these three- and that copy was a very old Penguin classic that I found on the book stall at Spitalfields market which was falling apart completely.

Capuchin's mandate is to revive 'great works of fiction which have been unjustly forgotten or neglected'. I think they are brilliant. Plus the peppermint cream colours covers look delicious on book shelves, especially next to the similarly chic dove grey spines of Persephone books- of which I am also, obviously, very fond.

Book treasure

Do other people have wish lists on Amazon that are over ten pages long, or is it just me?

The wishes are actually not so long for financial reasons, I always consider books to be money well spent anyway. No the list is extensive partly because I like to catalogue everything I read about and want to go back to, I use it as a backup plan when my memory fails (which is often). It's also so long because some of the books are not easy ones to find and while I'd love to be the kind of person who has the time to rummage around second hand book shops for afternoons on end, I am not. So... I went to wonderful Windsor, which is around forty minutes on the train from London but feels about a hundred years away in some ways. It has lots of nice places to eat and drink, some nice walking along the river, a big castle you might have heard of to admire (or go into) and as this is England, shops.

One of my favourite shops there isn't the kind I usually talk about- little boutiques with nice shoes, or prints or perfume. It's a discount book shop and I LOVE delving into the store and finding treasure. Often I come away with cook books (hello Wagamama cook book for £5) other time coffee table books (hello film poster book). For reasons unknown I hadn't really looked at the fiction. Last weekend I did and I found a book that has been on my wish list for about 3 years and that I though was out of print- I literally danced a little jig.

Dodie Smith is the writer of two of the most beloved books in my life. The first: 101 Dalmatians, which as a child and adult I find endlessly comforting and joyful. The second: I Capture the Castle, a book I discovered via the film and as a grown- up, which I wish and wish I'd read as a teenager and which I return to again and again for more wistful reasons than the Dalmatians, to remind me to stay true to my course and to re centre me I think.

So to find Town in Bloom and another Dodie which I didn't even know about was so exciting. I grabbed a third book (Petite Anglaise- a blog I loved) and took my treasure- 3 books for 5 pounds- back to London (skipping).

If you go to Windsor, visit the works on the cobbled main street- I can't promise treasure but it's always worth looking.

Books: Pear Shaped

I am now the owner of a Kindle. As I said earlier today I do feel like I'm betraying books but I have also read more in the last week than I have the rest of the year so far- and that feels very good. I have made an oath that if I love a book I read on the Kindle book crack machine I will buy a physical copy of it- because it is nicer to read books whatever anyone says and if I love a book I will re read it. Also if you enjoy a book you want to spread the joy and lend the book to people and you can't do that with a download (and that my friends is worth remembering when we are paying the often cheaper online book price).

So this week I've been reading a delightful book called Pear Shaped by Stella Newman, writer, food writer and, I've learned, go to person for recipe and restaurant recommendations in London and New York.
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Pear Shaped is about Sophie, a pudding developer (seriously, why don't the careers advisers at school tell you that is a real job) who is single and living in London

The book is primarily about dessert and love- with side orders of New York and London. To me this is all good, there are days and weeks when you need books like this. Books that make you smile, make you feel like you aren't the only one who has bad days at work, bad weeks at work, that tell you you aren't the only one who doesn't understand men or always do the right thing and heroines that sometimes eat toast for dinner- with added recommendations for puddings you've never eaten before (hello compost cookies, we need to meet).

Stella Newman writes a blog which features some of the delicious sounding food in Pear Shaped. You can read her blog here- though be warned you will want to start baking almost immediately.

A Review of a book that is not new: I don't know how she does it by Allison Pearson

I recently had a bibliotherapy session (via the The School of Life) which was very enlightening. Via the process of writing about my favourite books and thinking about books that have made an impression on my life- and those that haven't- I realised several things. Firstly that I have a terrible habit of loving one book by a writer and then being scared that the next one won't be so good and not reading anymore (unless they are George Orwell who I trust absolutely). Secondly that I don't tend to read the current 'thing' and thirdly that when I read the current 'thing' a few years later I tend to like it.

So I come to I don't know how she does it. A book I had never read- partly because I avoid pink covers (which I also realised I should not) and partly because I am not a working Mother of two and didn't necessarily think I would relate.

I was completely wrong, I really liked the character of Kate Reddy. As I say I am not married, do not have children and do not run a house but I completely relate to the feeling of being exhausted, not quite doing everything properly and also the need and want to make a wage. As I say although Kate was more successful than I am in terms of her career and arguable her personal life she seemed like friend not foe. I particularly liked the affirmation that she wanted to be a successful woman partly to give her daughter an example but also for herself.

Now of course success doesn't have to mean being in the boardroom and Kate goes on a journey in the book that I think is quite realistic- because you can't have it all. In the film I think the journey is far less believable, it would be wonderful if we really could be amazing at our careers and work 9-5 with a lunch break and time to have our hair done and go to sports days but it doesn't happen on my planet. More and more as I get older I think it is going to extremely difficult for women to have a career and a family and do both well- it's difficult for men too, of course, but not as difficult.

On that subject I loved that the men in Kate's life were real and well drawn. There is the standard city idiot but also a boss who makes the right decisions for his company and member of staff in the end. Her husband is a great man but he's not perfect because no one is- and her business partner is also an interesting and believable person.

So if like me you sometimes live under a rock when it comes to best sellers and if like me you sometimes wonder how on earth we might approach being women today then I actually recommend this book- it's light but it's good, it became my great friend.

Finally I wondered, as I always do, what perfume Kate Reddy might wear- because busy as she is I think Kate would find time to spritz- I decided she would wear Coco Chanel- classic, proper and improper, seductive but ok with a suit- a perfume for all occasions which she needs and a perfume you dream of owning when you're young.

Opening old books

During the summer the beautiful Northumbrian shop Re have had an installation on the interiors floor at Liberty. One quiet and colder than it should have been evening I wandered over to my favourite shop looking for peace rather than shopping and decided to look at the new area. They had lots of great found objects, properly old things not items that had been artfully distressed for no reason.

In short they had a great deal to admire but what I loved most was looking through the old horticultural books. I am very far from an expert on flowers, I like the way they look and smell very much of course but I have no idea of their classical names, when they should bloom, what their names might mean and so on, still I find that people do know all these things (especially in this day and age) really extremely good.

I came away with two gifts to myself which you can see above (wrapped might I say with the same love and care he might have reserved for an antique mirror worth vastly more by the charming gentleman who worked in the furniture department). The first is of course fascinating to me because it's about scents and gardens and the second because it is all about roses, which I actually know very little about but adore completely anyhow.

Both look very pretty on my shelf, they look like the kind of book an interior decorator might put there. What is best about them though is what they say. The way of writing, the care and the love the two men have for these very feminine subjects they've chosen to write about, the time they've take to write, the old fashioned language and old fashioned way of coming to the point they use- it's all like a lullaby in a book.

We read old novels all the time don't we but I certainly very rarely read other old books and they are just as lovely- perhaps lovelier. As a historian they are certainly more interesting in many ways than novels, we use novels to time travel but we are so used to do that I'm not sure we always do. These two books genuinely transport me to a house that wasn't centrally heated, with a walled vegetable garden and a proper garden beyond perhaps. To a writer sitting at a very old wooden desk writing long hand next to a type writer, with a pile of books and cuttings of flowers, perhaps in failing light that isn't helped too quickly by electricity.

Next time you are looking around charity shops, or bric a brac shops, pick up the old factual books, they are like deep pile blankets of book joy.

Lutyens and Rubinstein

Lutyens and Rubinstein is easily one of my favourite bookshops. Based in Notting Hill it is owned by two literary agents (Sarah Lutyens and Felicity Rubinstein). The shops is so obviously owned by people who love books that is barely needs explaining. It is not a large space but on the two small floors they have managed to fit many, many interesting titles as well as some crockery and, fabulously in my opinion, some perfume.



The scents are from CB I hate Perfume and many of them are directly inspired by books or literature. Particularly note worthy are A Room with A View and fabulous In the Library- but they are all worth smelling ( and you can read about the full range of perfumes by the very talented Christpher Brosius on the CB I hate Perfume website).



Picture of the interior of Lutyens and Rubinstein from The Guardian here.

Picture of the range of CB I hate Perfume scents available at Lutyens and Rubenstein courtesy of Vogue. You can read their own blog about Lutyens and Rubinstein here.

The Hendrick's Lecture Series with The Last Tuesday Society

I've long wanted to attend the Hendrick's Lecture Series so when a talk by Mitford's biographer Selina Hastings appeared on the schedule I took my chance. Sadly a combination of TFL troubles and an unfortunate error with postcodes meant I missed half the talk and what I heard was from the back of a room without a line of sight, which I must say left me a little sad.

However the good news is you can listen to the talk on Evelyn and Nancy and lots of the other lectures via The Last Tuesday Society's website.

EVELYN WAUGH AND NANCY MITFORD A Literary Correspondence Course
With Selina Hastings can be heard here and you can find a full selection of the podcasts available here.

Books: The girl in the song

The Girl in the Song by Michael Heatley and Frank Hopkinson is a great little volume that explains the true stories behind fifty songs about women. There are songs by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Leonard Cohen to name a few.

I found this in Waterstone's on Oxford street in their staff picks area- credit where credit is due and all that.

Book Review and Competition: To the River by Olivia Laing

I have long admired Olivia Laing's writing, at a time when I was rediscovering the solace of books and words it was some of her work that resonated most. So I was genuinely excited to hear that she had written a book and that it was to be non- fiction.

To the River is Laing's account of her journey from the source to the end of River Ouse in Sussex. One Spring she decided to pack her bag and walk the miles of the river's banks. The journey and Laing's emotions along the way are described in almost forensic detail. She is a writer who isn't afraid of exposing herself completely for better or worse, her every dark thought or moment of doubt is available to the reader. She doesn't dress her writing for posterity and she includes the ugliness of a discarded McDonald's in a field, or a half heard car park conversation, giving them as much importance in her journey as the beautiful hedgerows and waters she passes by.

The Ouse is perhaps most famously the water that Virginia Woolf drowned herself in and Laing uses Woolf's story to introduce the theme of the relationship between writers and rivers which she then expands on; she is of course writing in the very tradition she is studying which gives the book an extra aspect, an awareness of itself I suppose. The author is also a trained medical herbalist and her seemingly extensive knowledge of plants and nature works alongside the lyrical side of her writing to ground it and give it the depth that a scientific eye can give to artistic work.

In short this book is part diary, part literary criticism, part nature walk, part gritty modern tale, part ecological warning, part history book. Altogether I found it sublime, it's a charming and enjoyable to read, though weighty and at times profoundly sad also. Laing is so lucky to be able to write virtually anything and everything she wants to and to be able to tie themes together as if they were born to sit side by side. To the River is the best thing I've read this year and I know it is a book I will read again and again.

More eloquent or esteemed writers than I have reviewed To the River here and here.

I have three copies of this really wonderful book to give away in a competition. To enter the drawer please leave a comment below or tweet me @arosebtt. I will leave the competition open until the 4th of June. Good luck!

You can listen to an interview with Olivia (and a really fascinating tour of Virginia and Leonard Woolf's house in Sussex on Woman's Hour here.

PS you can order a copy of the book here if you can't wait for the competition.

Books: The Penguin Great Food Series

If you like books or bookshops you are very likely to know the The Penguin Great Ideas series, a collection of short but beautiful books by a vast array of authors, writers and thinkers from many ages. You may not have known they were a series but you will have picked up one of these small treasures and flicked through it I'm sure.

Now Penguin have produced The Penguin Great Food Series; a similar collection that celebrates food and culinary writing from the last four hundred years.

Like the Ideas Collection the Food books are beautifully presented (with covers by the ever brilliant Coralie Bickford- Smith) and keenly priced so you can indulge in a book shaped treat without feeling like you've over- indulged monetarily.

I am personally particularly excited about the Alexandre Dumas book 'From Absinthe to Zest: An Alphabet for Food Lovers'. I have loved Dumas without question from Dogtanion to D'Artagnan) and beyond.




Featured books covers above:
The Elegant Economist

The Campaign for Domestic Happiness

From Absinthe to Zest: An Alphabet for Food Lovers (by Alexandre Dumas


Further reading:

The Great Food Club blog on Tumblr is written by Pen Vogler from Penguin who is cooking her way through some of the recipes and discussing the books generally. It's a great blog and I think she is using the medium in exactly the way it should be, to create new, interesting content that will enhance people's enjoyment of the books.

You can follow Pen on twitter too @PenfromPenguin

Cold water surfing

Surfing in Sweden- it's unexpected.

I first came across the notion that people actually walk out into the surf of the Baltic Sea in Intelligent Life magazine. Their story was inspired by and featured the beautiful photographs of Daniel Månsson.

The art of photography has been long established and with digital cameras giving most of us the ability to take passable photographs it is easy to forget just how remarkable these still moments in time can be. Månsson's pictures reminded me how much I wished I was a great photographer and that I am definitely not.

The pictures speak for themselves- both for his talent and for his desire to share the story of the Swedish surfers. You can view a slide show of the pictures at Kontinent. Daniel also has his own website with a print shop and guide to his books- and you can like his Facebook page (if you like to like). He doesn't just do surfing- he has some awesome pictures of skateboarders doing things I don't understand which look good and gorgeous pictures of Sweden that are making me want to visit there again sooner than now (happily I am actually going in May).

It was the cold water surfing that first led me to him though- and which particularly inspired me too. Having surfed in the relative warmth of British waters in the summer (with a wet suit on, obviously) and found my body elated but exhausted afterwards I can only imagine loving something so much that you would wear a 5cm thick wet suit and get into water that is colder than the freshly chilled glass of water on my desk- that is making my teeth stand on end and my fingers turn white when I drink from it. To need to do something so much, that's cool- that's what I want to find in the world.

If you like surfing stuff why don't you also check out this blog by Joanna Goddard on pre second world war surf photographer Don James- with a great re- print.

When I got in touch with Jo to ask if she could give me the link to this story she also recommended a really interesting documentary called Surfwise about an 85 year old surfer, his wife and their nine children- thanks Jo!

I've started making a Spotify playlist of surf songs which I will be popping up here later- but you know what- just put on the Beach Boys and you're pretty much there.


Thanks very much to Daniel for letting me use the above image.

Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will

An Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will captivated me and transported me from Charing Cross Road (Foyle's books to be exact) to the wild seas of the unknown places, the barely touched, explored, uninhabitable islands of far far away.

This is why I hope and believe that books will continue to exist. This collection is collated with the intellectual rigour of a book of fact but has some of the mystery and wonder of a work of fiction. It is a charming thing, which you could not create yourself and though you could read about these islands on the internet very easily I'm sure you probably wouldn't have the idea to, or the time to find out the little facts the author Judith Schalansky has- the details like the Russian buildings that have been left to sink into ice.

A lovely present for all adventurers- and armchair adventurers.

Hix Oyster and Chop House- the book

Having bought and loved Mark Hix's book on British Seasonal Food and being a fairly recent adopter of oysters I was very excited when his new book Hix Oyster and Chop House arrived.

Oysters to me were always a sophisticated dish I felt I 'should' like but wasn't actually sure of. Having avoided them on menus, partly because I was worried I didn't like them and partly because of the anxiety of not being quite sure of how to eat them 'properly', I decided to just go for it and try one at Borough market on a sunny Saturday.

The good news is that like mushrooms and gherkins before them the oysters I had hated as a child I absolutely loved as a grown up- and so a new obsession was born.

This book is brilliant because it explains all about oysters in great detail: all the different British and Irish varieties are described by the characteristics, there is a good guide to how to prepare oysters and then several interesting recipes for them.

This book is in many ways far more educational than lots of the modern food coffee table books available. It explains in depth about the different cuts of all the kinds of meat served at the restaurant. My Mother and Grandmother probably know all about meat cuts and what to order at the butcher for what recipe but I'm afraid beyond a Sunday roast, a steak or a chicken breast I'm sadly lacking in knowledge of what to buy and how best to cook what I do get. This book is helpful in that regard without ever stopping being a good, glamorous read like lots of the food books which are lighter on the detail.

That isn't to say there aren't lots of beautiful recipes to get all worked up about too. The book opens just as any good meal should, with some information about the drinks served at Hix Oyster House- including the famously delectable Hix Fix.

Then there are a wealth of recipes to either try or fantasise about arranged as you might order them in the restaurant. The recipes include soups (I particularly like the sound of the crayfish and cider brandy soup); salads (including some fabulous dressings like mimosa and bramble); toasts (asparagus with Dorset drum cheddar for me please); fish of course (griddled squid with broad bean relish sounds especially good; there is meat too with a range of traditional and not so traditional sauces; also happily the side dishes at the restaurant are included- for me sides and starters are the best bits about any meal and these would make me order bowls and bowls of extras. Finally of course there is pudding- heaty rhubarb crumble and elegant strawberry sparling wine jelly among them. For all that I love sweet things I don't always want them at the end of a meal- so I was pleased to find a discussion of the many kinds of cheeses you might like to try.

Book review: Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt

Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt is a book I expect you will be hearing a great deal about in the coming months.

I am lucky enough to have read the book before it is released as a result of attending a talk with the author at Foyle's on Charing Cross Road.

The reason you will hear so much about this book, aside from it being a thoroughly engaging debut, is that it's title character, Mr. Chartwell, is a speaking dog. A speaking black dog.

This canine isn't the friend of children's tales you might be thinking of at all though, he is something else. Chartwell, or Black Pat as he later prefers to be known, is such a clever idea, for he is what Winston Churchwell famously referred to as his 'black dog'; Mr Chartwell is depression. This anthropomorphism is such an engaging way of writing about the malady, the strange mixture of darkness, stress and apathy that depression seems to be that it is worth reading for the idea alone.

Happily though the narrative is strong enough to warrant attention for more than this speaking dog. I enjoyed the characterisation of Churchill very much, he is a man whose life we know so much about- and whose inner life we think we understand- but who remains something of an enigmatic mystery despite all that. Hunt's characterisation of this twentieth century giant is detailed, warm and touching without straying into any saccharine sentimentally.

Just as interesting a portrait is drawn of Esther; the other main protagonist of Hunt's story. Esther is a presumably entirely fictional character. She is intelligent and holds an interesting job. She is modern woman but a lady who is resolutely refusing to enjoy living in the early 1960s when the book is set- instead living in a kind of limbo after a bereavement while the seeds of cultural revolution are sprouting around her. She is a very real character because of course most people in the early 1960s, or at any time when great changes are happening, are not part of that change- they take time to process what is happening- or their life gets in the way of seeing what is occurring and what that means for them.

Then there is Black Pat himself. Apart from being a very clever idea Black Pat is perhaps the most fascinating character of all- and that is nothing to do with him being a large, rather unkempt talking dog as we have encountered speaking animals before. He is written in such a way that you constantly want him to be in the scene, you constantly want to know more- were he a man he would actually be just as intriguing and hypnotic. He has his own purpose in life- and is surprisingly perhaps not an unsympathetic personality.

When she spoke about how she came to write Hunt explained that she hadn't spent excessive time learning her craft as such, she had just got on and written. She wrote short stories and is an artist so obviously understands translating creative ideas into lasting pieces. There is something particularly fresh about this novel and I am sure that is a combination of her raw talent, her artistic nature, the obvious care her agents and publisher have taken to nurture her book and more- but I think it is also that clear desire she seemed to have to get on and write her story.

I enjoyed that story very much on many levels. I learnt something more about depression and struggling, about other people's internal lives, about how busy and consuming all our internal worlds can be and the struggle we can have to live our external ones too; I laughed, felt great affection for all the characters and wished I could visit post war Britain.

There is an interesting interview with the author Rebecca Hunt here.

Mr Chartwell is published by Penguin in hardback tomorrow, the 7th of October 2010.

Book cover image from Penguin books.

Colouring books for grown ups

I like colouring in. I don't care that it is meant to be for children because I find it relaxing and satisfying (being artistic but not actually able to draw I like that there are lines to keep within). There is nothing so nice as sharpening pencils and then sitting down to colour while you listen to the radio or even if you are having a picnic in the park (not very likely in London this week I know). Go on, try it, it's pretty fun.

Some lovely colouring books for adults and children are:



The architecture colouring book from the Southbank centre shop.



Also the Arthur Rackham colouring book (I actually did a little dance when I found this), from Amazon and the book depository and others I'm sure.

The Scandinavian Cookbook

Scandinavian food has been a particular favourite of mine since I was a little girl, thanks to having the good fortune of having Swedish and Danish neighbours (despite growing up in a little corner of Surrey).

I distinctly remember my first open sandwich and wondering why there was no roof on it- it was a revelation- as a child I couldn't understand why no one British hadn't noticed that less bread meant more room for filling! (now I also see it is a healthier option but you don't care about all that when you're five do you?).

I also remember the creamy Danish blue cheese, the cinnamon buns and the tale of the grown up dinner party where our Danish neighbour cooked the best sea bass the adults of our road ever tasted by steaming it in a dish washer (inside a covered pan you understand).

So I was delighted to be given the chance to review The Scandinavian Cookbook by Trina Hahnemann- who is a sort of Scandinavian cross between Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith with a bit of Hugh Fearnly Whittingshall thrown in (for her love of seasonal produce and unusual ingredients only!).

The book is beautifully presented- the recipes are arranged seasonally and accompanied by wonderful photographs of spring, summer, autumn and winter in the different Scandinavian countries as well as of the glorious food- so you see the food in context but are also enjoying some stunning photography in it's own right that will have you looking for flights straight away- this is more than merely a recipe book- it's a window into Scandinavian life through food.

I look at cookery books in book shops a great deal. I find it completely relaxing to sit down in a corner of a shop and really look at new titles to see how well they explain recipes and I must say time and time again I put books back that don't have pictures of the dishes they are telling you how to make. I know pictures add a great deal of expense to a book but I really value being able to see what my end result should be. The photographs of the food here are plentiful and mouth watering.

The recipes on offer vary in terms of formality and the time and skill required to make them. So there are recipes for simple, easy to make but important, staple dishes like Smorrebrod and Langoustines with mayonnaise but also more complex and unusual dishes like veal with rhubarb. I'm particularly keen to make my own elderflower cordial and the artichoke soup.

I find it fascinating and I think I have said it here before that the Nordic countries are so close to us relatively but we tend not to immediately look to them for- inspiration I suppose. Certainly food wise we look to Paris, Milan or Barcelona for new recipes far more than Stockholm or Copenhagen. These countries have so much to offer and not least in their food. The food is at once really quite similar to our own but different enough to seem exotic and it's certainly very hip. It is also often extremely healthy and there is a dedication to seasonal eating that seems real rather than our British flirting with it but ultimately still buying strawberries from three time zones away in the middle of winter.

I understand Trina will also be opening a pop- up restaurant in Londonfor ten days in November and December. If the recipes from those months in the book are anything to go by it will be a real treat. The pop- ups menu is describes as a modern version of the smörgåsbord. It will include open sandwiches with home-baked rye bread and various toppings, and some Danish cheeses. Then there will be an afternoon tea with traditional glühwein and Swedish cinnammon rolls. And for dinner there will be a four-course menu with soup and fish, plus a main course and a pudding. I will post more information about the restaurant nearer the time- I will certainly be going and hope to maybe see some of you there too.

The Scandinavian Cookbook is available in paperback from pre- order here and is released on the 1st of October. The hard back is available here.

Paperback reader

I am off to America next week and I am, of course, very excited (please don't hate me, it is a much needed holiday).

I would love your help with some recommendations of good paperbacks (for they are light and my suitcase will not be) that I could take with me. Pretty much everything on my wish list seems to have a long delivery time, be in hardback or be far too serious for sun loungers and twelve hour flights.

So if you could help me with paperbacks that will be easy to get in the next few days, are suitable for long plane journeys and attention spans made short by the combination of time changes, sun and hopefully cocktails I would be very, very grateful.

When to spend

Even in these frugal times there are some things you spend money on. In a quest for quality not quantity my list of things to splash on would include:

Loo paper (or toilet roll if you like)- this has inspired the whole post really. The cleaners at work in an effort to economise have started providing us with what seems to be rice paper. This is not helpful. Especially as in an effort to economise we all use the loo paper for tissues. I have scratched half my hay fever-plagued skin off because I'm too thrifty to just go to the supermarche.

Tissues- see above. A big manly tissue is my favourite.

Chocolate (as in Green and Black's worth spending money, not as in silly gift boxes that cost more than a meal, I mean I like those if anyone wants to send me one but I wouldn't buy one for myself)

Coffee

Chicken (although that's more for reasons of conscience than cash)

Shoes. Sort of. In that ones made of a breathable material (not necessarily leather) mean less blisters, bad smells, strange infections and happier feet!


Things I am very happy to economise on:

Books. Not that I don't spend lots on them I do- but I am more than happy to buy a second hand one or ten- because obviously I can have more and also I am happy about passing them on to people. Also if I buy paperbacks from a charity shop or second hand shop I can have more brand new ones.

Water. I like the tap stuff, it's not too cold and when I buy mineral water I seem to spend my life recycling.

Nail varnish. I have bought all kinds from the champagne to the white lightnings (if you are not British that is very, very cheap horrible alcohol) of nail varnish and honestly I think all that matters is that you like the colour, put two coats on and don't let it go gloopy. Good base and top coats do seem to matter though. Oh dear this is getting perilously into preachy beauty magazine territory isn't it.

Travel:
Buses: I love the bus, you get to drive around London looking in shop windows, seeing people go by and you can listen to podcasts and music. The tube is often too loud to hear the spoken word and quite a lot of quiet songs. That said I don't like traffic jams, misty bus windows, seats facing backwards or bendy buses- or when the bus terminates for no reason and the driver doesn't know (which means can't be bothered) to do a transfer.
Walking: clearly the best way to get around and to see London, always my preferred mode of transport where possible!

Weekend homework: 21st of May 2010

This week six Penguin classics go (RED). The books in the set are: Dracula by Bram Stoker, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad. Why not read a classic in a sunny park this weekend?



It's the final ever Ashes to Ashes *makes little squealing sound*

I want to go and see the birds playing guitar at the Barbican; doesn't this sound cool:

'Trained as a musician and composer, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways. His installation for The Curve will take the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape'. (finishes 23rd of May).



If you like Joni Mitchell, which I'm sure those of you with good taste do, catch up on For Folk's Sake's week of articles, reviews and Joni experiences. You could also read this piece on her album Clouds which I wrote for them.

I finally saw Four Lions, I was worried I might find it a bit tough but I laughed and then I cried- you can't ask for much more. It's definitely a very British comedy. They've managed to take extremely serious subject matter and build very real, touching characters- and then through some wonderful acting and astute use of funny runs created a really interesting two hours at the cinema. So I'd recommend it for after the sun goes down.



But while the sun is up and out I will be mostly wearing sandals and enjoying summer in London, when it's here there's nothing like it.

Wild Places

Britain and Ireland's Best Wild Places: 500 Ways to Discover the Wild by Christopher Somerville is a beautiful book with 500 reasons to get out and see these islands.