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.

Continue reading “A Woman’s Lot in Renaissance Italy”

A Chemistry Lesson

It is not uncommon for cooking – specifically baking – to be likened to chemistry. The way that baking requires the cook to mix together ingredients in specific quantities which then combine and, through the application of heat, turn into a new product, is not dissimilar to what happens in the chemistry experiments we all participated in at school. Continue reading “A Chemistry Lesson”