Monthly Archives: December 2009

A Feast or Disaster?

Back from Tesco. We shouldn’t starve at Christmas!  There are a few more things to get but they are obtainable at the shop directly opposite me in the village.  Even if snow develops I’ll be able to get them. Turkey on order there too. I have 14 miles to go to the supermarket. Thank goodness we didn’t have the snow I hear they have had in the south. Did I buy too much? Yes and No. Got the usual everyday things but … well at this time of the year I listen to and read Delia and Nigella and think I’ll try that. So I get the ingredients. Probably will use them only once and eventually the Use Before sends out its warning. But hopefully I won’t meet disaster and the family will have enjoyed my effort. Got a new starter in mind and a different way with red cabbage, and a new gravy as well as a mouth-watering trifle!! I’ll keep the turkey straight-forward !   Happy planning everyone.

Books From My Bookshelves 7. 12 December 2009

There is a shelf in my kitchen.  If it held pots and pans I wouldn’t be writing about it here. It holds BOOKS, recipe books, handy for use. Nearly 50! And there are 40 others and two part-works in my library – back-ups to those in the kitchen. Why so many? Well, many of them were my wife’s – she loved reading recipe books. I never could see the delight in that until I was left on my own and had to cook for myself and friends. I became interested in cooking and realised why she liked reading recipe books. I have become adicted!   Now, in my kitchen I have, Delia Smith, Nigella Lawson, Mary Berry, Lucy Young, Susannah Blake. What an array to help me ! Not one male in sight ! Oh, yes, there is one creeping in – James Martin.  Among these I have a bulging file of recipies cut from magazines and newspapers. I am only following my wife here because among her books I found a note-book with cuttings stuck in. But there is another in which she had written recipes. Apparantly this practice started in her school days when part of her School Certificate curriculum was domestic science that included cookery.  In that recipe book  are such delights as Aunt Lizzie’s Sponge Cake, Mrs Simpson’s Marmalade, Mrs Lumsden’s Butterscotch Sauce, Mrs Flintoft’s Buns, Miss Dalton’s Ginger Biscuits. 

A kitchen needs books. If they are precious to you, as they are to me, take care to keep them, when in use, out of the way of spillage and splashing.  Happy reading that brings you mouth-watering results !

Books From My Bookshelves 6. 6 December 2009

My Art teacher, when I was at school in Middlesbrough, used to occasionally direct our attention to architecture. This fascinated me and since then I have always had an interest in architecture. I left school in 1939 and went to Teacher Training College at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham 1940 – 42. Because of the war the course was curtailed to two years and we were only allowed to complete our second year provided that in that year we did military training as well. I chose to do the initial training for aircrew.

I have a book in which I have written Kingston-on-Thames June 1942. I must have bought it there just before I left College. What is it? THE STORY OF THE ENGLISH HOUSE by Hugh Braun.  There’s the influence of my Art Teacher coming through !  It was published by B.T.Batsford in April 1940 – a First Edition. I bought it new at a cost of 10s 6d (ten shillings and six pence – about 50p for those who don’t recognise ‘old money’)  It led me to more architecture books (more of those in later editions of ‘From My Bookshelves) but it also led me to more books published by Batsford – 44 now stand in colourful array on my bookshelves

 

From My Bookshelves 7. 4th December

My entry of the 10th October shows how my early reading took me to John Buchan. I have twenty-six books by him on my bookshelves, the first, Prester John which was on my school list for reading. It led me into Greenmantle, John Macnab and all the others. One in particular has special memories for me. Written inside is my name and under it ‘Cambridge 11th Sept 1942.’  No, I wasn’t at the University. I had just been taken into the RAF as aircrew under traing and was lying on a grass airfield just outside the town.  The weather was pleasant; I had purchased Sick Heart River and was reading it before taking to the air for the first time! It proved not to be the last, for I went on to serve as a Bomb Aimer in Lancasters in Bomber Command completing a tour of 36 missions. Sick Heart River, set in remote Canada, pre-figured Buchan’s own death. I did not know as I read it that, in training, I would fly over some of those icy wastes of remote Canada.

Buchan may be dated today but he tells a good story and his novels never fail to grip and his characters, of their time, come alive. His settings are vivid and make it easy for the reader ‘to be there.’

I believe that John Buchan was one of the influences that turned me to writing fiction, and his non-fiction books showed me the merits of good research  He showed me that writing can be as much of an adventure as the stories themselves.

Ah, what pleasant days reading on an airfield near Cambridge can lead to !

Been to the Romantic Novelists Association (Northern Branch) meeting at Beckwithshaw near Harrogate today. Well, it was our Christmas Lunch so it was only a meting in the sense that we met together. We had an enjoyable lunch and of course there was much chatter, lots of it connected with the writing world. I had special talk with Ruth Pattison whose writing spans many fields among which I particularly like her Gothic Novels published under the name of Ruth Abbey. I chatted with our charming friends Diane and Helen from Magna Large Print Books based in Long Preston, North Yorkshire. They have published most of my books in large print so it was interesting to meet up with them again.  Twenty five of us – I had an word here and a word there and exchanged notes with Frances Brody who writes for the same publisher as myself – Piatkus an imprint of the Little Brown Group, Then I ended up slaking my thirst by sharing a cup of tea with delightful Shirely Wells whose crime novels you should read.

Hi June,

I have just sent you an email – a reply to your comment. I am so grateful for your interest in my books and that they bring you pleasure.

Best Wishes

Bill/Jessica