Category: 20th century literature

Food and adventure 2: croissants

‘and then the waiter came with the coffee and croissants’ (Mary Stewart, Madam, will you talk?)

In my last post I wrote about the romantic suspense novels of the 20th century novelist Mary Stewart, with a focus on the wonderful French food that permeates her first publication Madam, will you talk? Out of all the delicious-sounding foodstuffs that Stewart describes, I decided to focus on ‘croissants’ – they recur throughout the novel, they are viewed as a classic French food and I also learnt to make them in France. Continue reading “Food and adventure 2: croissants”

Food and adventure

There’s nothing like an adventure for stirring up an appetite. All that fresh air, exercise and adrenaline can leave one feeling ravenous. Enid Blyton’s Famous Five novels are a case in point, with the four adventure-prone children (plus dog) always finding the time to have a picnic – with ‘lashings of ginger beer’ – even in the middle of high drama and tense action.  Continue reading “Food and adventure”

Gossip and tea

Out of all meals, tea is perhaps the one which most lends itself to the exchange of gossip. In my post about afternoon tea in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest I wrote about the ‘invention’ of this quintessentially English meal in the 19th century by Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, who decided she needed to eat something light to combat ‘that sinking feeling’ she experienced mid-afternoon. Whilst this routine began as a private affair for the Duchess, she soon started inviting her friends to join her for tea and gossip about the latest scandal. The ritual caught on and was adopted by the fashionable upper classes of London society.  Continue reading “Gossip and tea”