When it comes to food at Christmas, in addition to the foodstuffs usually eaten – mince pies, turkey, Christmas cake – another traditional feature is the amount of food consumed. We expect to spend more money on food, to have our kitchen cupboards and fridges full to bursting and to eat so much that our New Year’s Resolution yet again has to be to go on a diet and start going to the gym. Continue reading “Christmas feasting”
Category: D. H. Lawrence
A Working Man’s Tea
After a tea of sausages and tinned tomatoes he sat by the fire smoking a cigarette. (Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) Continue reading “A Working Man’s Tea”
Coming home for Christmas
‘Everybody was mad with excitement. William was coming on Christmas Eve. Mrs Morel surveyed the pantry. There was a big plum cake, and a rice cake, jam tarts, lemon tarts, and mince pies – two enormous dishes. She was finishing cooking – Spanish tarts and cheese-cakes.’ (D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers) Continue reading “Coming home for Christmas”
Mothers and Sons
She insisted on his having a small currant tart, because he liked sweets.
‘I don’t want it, mother,’ he pleaded.
‘Yes,’ she insisted, ‘you’ll have it.’ (D.H.Lawrence, Sons and Lovers)
It seems rather obvious to state that our relationship with food is shaped by our upbringing, particularly by our parents and other family members. What they give us to eat and the way they think and talk about food provide ideas and impulses that we either conform to – or in some cases rebel against. Continue reading “Mothers and Sons”