In frames as large as rooms that face all ways
And block the ends of streets with giant loaves,
Screen graves with custard, cover slums with praise
Of motor-oil and cuts of salmon, shine
Perpetually those sharply-pictured groves
Of how life should be. (Philip Larkin, ‘Essential Beauty’)
In nearly all the literary texts I have written about in this blog, food appears as a tangible, edible substance designed to be consumed by a character.
But in Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Essential Beauty’, from his 1964 collection The Whitsun Weddings, the actual food does not appear. Instead the poem’s focus is on images of food on advertising hoardings.
The advertising of food dates back to the birth of advertising itself. Arguably advertising has existed from the time people began selling goods. To attract customers and persuade them to buy your goods, rather than the similar ones on a neighbouring market stall, you had to advertise your wares, whether that was by shouting or making signs (in writing or pictorial form).
But advertising in the form we know really began in the late 17th century with the growth of the printing industry. New weekly publications contained advertisements for luxury foodstuffs, such as tea, coffee and chocolate, desirable items for their wealthy upper-class readers. As the print industry expanded, and literacy rates increased, more and more people were able to both afford and read these publications. Coupled with this, improved transport networks meant products could be easily transported around the country, leading to a more competitive market: advertising thus became essential for manufacturers to thrive.
As we all know advertising succeeds by making consumers desire a product. Where food is concerned advertisers might focus on the taste – ‘Only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate, tastes like chocolate never tasted before’ (Cadbury’s Flake); its positive effect on the consumer – ‘A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play’; or its health-giving properties – ‘the fruit, the whole fruit and nothing but the fruit’ (Innocent Smoothies).
Another advertising method involves creating a lifestyle that consumers associate with the product. The lifestyle focus works in two ways: either the consumer sees themselves reflected in the advert and are thus encouraged to buy the product (because it is for people like them) or they see the lifestyle they would like to have and buy the product in order to acquire the related lifestyle.
In ‘Essential Beauty’ Larkin takes a swipe at the way advertising creates an unrealistic and unattainable world. In the poem’s opening lines, quoted above, he describes how the advertising hoardings, and the images on them, act as a physical obstruction: ‘the ends of streets’ are blocked with ‘giant loaves’. But the obstruction also works on a metaphorical level: ‘graves’ are screened by ‘custard’ and slums are covered with ‘praise /Of motor-oil and cuts of salmon’. The advertisements with their images of perfection conceal the harsh reality of life: the terrible living conditions of the occupants in the slums and the death that awaits us all and that no advertised lifestyle can stave off forever. As Larkin writes at the end of the first verse: the lifestyles in these adverts ‘Reflect none of the rained-on streets and squares.’
It seems appropriate that Larkin includes custard as one of his advertised foodstuffs: Alfred Bird and Sons Ltd, the manufacturers of Bird’s Custard powder, were one of the earliest users of promotional items and colourful advertising campaigns. Alfred Bird, a Birmingham chemist, invented an egg-free custard powder in 1837 because his wife was allergic to eggs. When the custard proved popular with friends and family, Bird set up his company and by 1844 was promoting the custard powder nationally. In the First World War Bird’s Custard was supplied to the British armed forces serving aboard.
Whilst Bird’s Custard is still widely available nowadays, I would encourage you to try making your own custard (with eggs). If you use a cheat’s version and include cornflour – as I do – it’s pretty fool proof – and you can’t beat the taste of a home-made custard to accompany whatever winter pudding you like (I went for a plum crumble).
LARKIN’S CUSTARD
Ingredients (serves 4 as an accompaniment to your pudding of choice):
400ml milk
4 large egg yolks
6 tablespoons caster sugar
4 teaspoons cornflour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Method:
Place the egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk for several minutes until the mixture reaches a thick consistency and is paler in colour.
Add the cornflour to the mixture and whisk to combine.
Warm the milk in a saucepan over a medium heat until it reaches scalding point (just before the boiling point – there will be small bubbles around the edge of the pan).
Pour the milk slowly into the egg and sugar mixture in the mixing bowl, whisking continuously. Then pour the mixture back into the saucepan and return to a low heat, continually stirring for the next 5-10 minutes until the mixture thickens. Make sure that, as you stir, you scrape the spoon over the base of the pan to prevent it sticking. The custard is ready when it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Don’t let it boil though.
Remove the custard from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract and serve with the pudding of your choice.
