Book Chat Issue #38
Cooking up a storm
Hello reading friends
I’m really excited about this week’s newsletter. It features a great book recommendation, a wonderful show about our most famous cookery writer, and an old-fashioned recipe. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to share it with your reading friends.
What I’ve been reading
Lessons in Chemistry has been on my TBR (to be read) list for ages and I planned to get it from the library, but ended up listening to an audiobook version instead. I’m not a big fan of audiobooks as I tend to fall asleep when I’m listening, and find it tiresome to scroll back through the story to find out exactly where I was up to, but I had an Audiobook credit I wanted to use, so I chose this book by Bonnie Garmus.
The audiobook is narrated by Miranda Raison (an English actress) who speaks in a beautifully modulated American accent and is delightful to listen to. There is also a bonus interview with the author at the end of the book where she talks about the advantages of publishing a best-seller as a mature woman.
Unlike other pursuits, being a writer requires neither speed nor beauty, she says.
Lessons in Chemistry tells the story of Elizabeth Zott, a feisty chemist who becomes a television cook so she can make enough money to raise her daughter. Set in the 1960s, it doesn’t shy away from the issues of the time including rampant sexism.
The book is essentially a love story about friendship and perseverance. It also features a wonderful dog called 6.30, who is both loyal and wise (as most dogs are).
It’s been a huge bestseller and is currently being made into a TV series. I can’t wait to see it, but in the meantime, do read the book. It’s excellent.
Other cookery related pursuits
Funnily enough, I also went to see a great show about another television cook with my sister Jennifer last week.
Margaret Fulton The Musical is a musical biography of one of our most beloved cookery writers. Born in the Scottish highlands in 1924, Margaret migrated to Australia with her parents and settled in Glen Innes in New South Wales. After a disastrous marriage, she began writing cookery pages in women’s magazines in the mid 1950s. Like Elizabeth Zott, her mission was to teach people to cook good wholesome food, beyond the traditional meat and three veg. The Margaret Fulton Cookbook was published in 1968 and is still in print.
Margaret died in 2019, aged 94. She is still very much missed by a whole generation of Australian women, including me. The show has finished its run in NSW, but if it turns up near you, go and see it. It’s fun.
A recipe
Margaret Fulton was famous for her scones. My other sister (Bev) tells me she made them for Father’s Day and they were textbook perfect. Here’s a video featuring Margaret making scones with her granddaughter, Louise Keats.
What I’ve been writing
If you are a new subscriber, you might not know that I also have a blog where I write short essays on a range of topics.
Here’s my most recent article which I wrote after working at a Bunnings sausage sizzle.
Well that’s all for this week. I hope your reading life is going well.
Warm wishes
Marg xxx
I was delighted to hear of Margret Fulton which I just now watched the YouTube trailer of the musical...how fun is that! Thank you for taking time to dig up these flaky nuggets.
Always a joy to get your newsletter in my in-box, Marg! As an audiobooks fan (and food obsessive!), I’m drawn to Lessons in Food--and Sinù’s recommendation as well. I’d never heard of Margaret Fulton, but now I’m on a hunt for her scone recipe. I’ve never used self-raising flour and wonder if that may be the secret difference in British (or Australian) vs. American scones. I suspect it’s that ours are much, much richer--more sugar, butter, cream, and eggs. You just add the richness--clotted cream and strawberry jam. Yum!