Hello readers and eaters
As you read this I am winging my way to Japan for a short trip with my daughter. I’ll include some highlights in the next issue, but if you’re interested in the full experience, why not follow me on Instagram.
A big thank you to all the lovely people who sent me kind messages about part one of my reading life. I was a little nervous about sharing the details of my early life, but it seems that many of you remember those times and can relate. Younger readers probably find it all rather curious…
My reading life - part two
It’s 1962 and I’m wearing a dress that’s identical to those worn by my two sisters. My hair has been styled with sugar water and crunches when you touch it. I feel very special in my new white patent leather shoes, but I become very tired of those dresses, as over the years, one after another, they are handed down to me to wear.
My mother marries Bob and wears an ugly caramel-coloured dress and a pill-box hat with a tiny veil.
Bob is a tyre salesman and really doesn’t really know what he’s let himself in for. He struggles to maintain control over us three girls. We aren’t naughty, but we resent his intrusion into our tight-knit group.
Soon two new siblings arrive (two little boys), and we become a family of seven.
It’s a tight squeeze for us all to fit around the dinner table, but there’s more money now, so we eat more meat. Mum cooks constantly, turning out not only meals, but a variety of soups and home-made cakes and slices. She describes herself as a good plain cook. She learns to drive.
My early teenage years are spent imagining myself as a heroine.
I love Anya Seton’s historical romances, especially Katherine and Dragonwyck.
Katherine is a historical romance set in the 14th Century about the relationship between Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, the third son of Henry VIII. According to this blogger, it also contains a detailed description of the Black Death, its deadly impact and its socio-economic repercussions, which culminated in the Peasants Revolt in 1381.
I was interested to learn that the bubonic plague killed approximately 50 million people, about 50% of Europe’s population. By comparison, COVID 19 is thought to have killed between 5 and 17 million people.
I was also delighted to learn that while Katherine was first published in 1954, it has never been out of print, so it must be a true classic.
Can you recall what you were reading as a young teenager?
Anya Seton’s other best-seller was Dragonwyck, a gothic romance about an abusive marriage. The storyline is a something of cross between Rebecca and Jane Eyre.
It tells the fictional story of the life of Miranda Wells and her marriage to Nicholas Van Ryn, and is set against the historical background of the Patroon system, Anti-Rent Wars and the Astor Palace Riots.
Dragonwyck was later made into a movie starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston and Vincent Prince (before he was old). There’s a line in the movie where Walter Huston tells Miranda that she won’t find a husband because she’s too picky and has her nose in the air. “A woman ought to get a man first and then want him”, he says. I wondered if this was my mother’s strategy.
What I’ve been eating
It’s summertime here in Australia and I’ve been mainly eating salads, thrown together with whatever is in the fridge, plus random additions of stone fruit. I do love salads with fruit in them, especially when they are dressed with my favourite salad dressing, a combination of lemon juice, olive oil, sumac, salt, and pomegranate molasses.
I also went out for lunch for my birthday and was queen for a day. Lunch was a delicious fillet steak with salsa verde and perfectly cooked shoestring potatoes.
Garden update
Some of you might remember me mentioning I had planted my first ever dahlia bulb and I’m pleased to advise that it has flowered and is very pretty. I don’t have particularly green thumbs, so this feels a tiny bit wondrous. I’m definitely going to buy a few more bulbs this winter, now I know they can survive the heat.
International Book Club
One of the perks of subscribing to Book Chat is that you can join our online book club. We meet every three months, which is fairly infrequent in comparison to face-to-face book clubs, but it gives everyone a chance to read the book. I appreciate that some people read quite slowly and/or don’t have a lot of time to spare.
The books we’ve read so far are:
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Oh, Sister by Jodie Chapman
We are currently reading You are Here by David Nicholls and will be meeting in the first week of March. If you haven’t attended before and would like to come along, please hit reply and I’ll send you an invitation.
That’s all for this edition!
Thanks for reading and watch out for part 3 of my reading life in the next issue.
Warm wishes
Marg
A great update and sharing of your younger days of family. What a pretty picture you girls were and no doubt are when together laughing it up. Safe travels!
I liked Anya Seton, too! As a preteen I read "The Winthrop Woman," and it made me feel very grown up. To this day, when I come across the names of the real historical figures Seton wove into this novel about the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, my brain responds as if I knew them personally!