Disagreements over chocolate are commonplace: some people prefer milk, some dark. Family members and friends may well argue over who gets to eat the nation’s favourite Quality Street (according to a 2021 article in the Daily Telegraph it is the purple one ) and who is lumbered with the least favourite (the orange creme according to the same article). But you wouldn’t normally expect such differences to be described as a ‘war’. Continue reading “The Chocolate War”
Category: The Novel
Food and generosity
In my last post I blogged about Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel, The Marriage Portrait, inspired by My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, a poem which I taught frequently during my career as a secondary school English teacher.
The text that inspired this post – Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird – was also one I taught frequently (as well as also studying it when I was at school). Continue reading “Food and generosity”
A Woman’s Lot in Renaissance Italy
In my previous existence as a secondary school English teacher I frequently taught Robert Browning’s poem My Last Duchess to my GCSE classes – click here to read the poem.
Male friendship and food
There is a general assumption that men and women operate very differently when it comes to friendships: whereas for women the focus is on emotional intimacy and support with a smaller number of friends, men tend to have more friends but their friendships are more transactional and based on shared activities and interests. Continue reading “Male friendship and food”