An American Christmas Breakfast

‘”I shall take the cream and the muffins”, added Amy, heroically giving up the articles she most liked.’ (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women)

Every year since I started this blog, I have written a Christmas-themed post: there have been, amongst others, mince pies from Pride and Prejudice, Christmas cake from Jane Eyre and fudge from Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales.  This year, feeling that I had exhausted my knowledge of Christmas food in English Literature, I decided to look across the Atlantic to America to Louisa Alcott’s Little Women (the new film version of which, directed by Greta Gerwig, is due for release this Christmas). Continue reading “An American Christmas Breakfast”

Eating with a French family

As I noted in a previous post – on Virginia Woolf’s To the lighthouse  – French food is very close to my heart (and stomach!). But whilst I have spent many enjoyable an hour in cafes, bistros and restaurants, some of my most vivid and long-lasting impressions of French food were nurtured in the home.  Continue reading “Eating with a French family”

Food in the historical novel

Since I started this blog more than five years ago, I’ve discovered how much literature can tell us about the food preferences and practices of a particular society or culture. Continue reading “Food in the historical novel”

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”