A few years ago, when telling a friend of my forthcoming move to Muswell Hill (an area in North London) he said, pityingly, ‘It’s a bit suburban there…’ Geographically speaking he was right: Muswell Hill is a London suburb – it’s more than 5 miles from Central London, in Zone 3 of the London travel network and the landline phone numbers begin with 0208 (rather than 0207, the mark of inner London). But his pitying tone conveyed the fact that the word ‘suburban’ is often used pejoratively to describe a particular lifestyle and mindset: conservative, small-minded and safe, in contrast to both the excitement of city life and the freedom and beauty of country living. Continue reading “Suburban life”
Food for a queen
In my last post I wrote about the use of food for diplomatic purposes in The Mirror and the Light, the final volume in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Continue reading “Food for a queen”
Food and politics
Throughout this blog I’ve written about the way that food in literature is always about more than just the food. Amongst its many narrative functions, food may reveal character, act as a metaphor for feelings and relationships or reflect key themes and issues in the text. Continue reading “Food and politics”
Food as distraction
Just under two years ago I wrote a post about Elizabeth Jane Howard’s novel The Light Years, the first novel in a series of five – The Cazalet Chronicles – a family saga spanning three generations and unfolding between 1937 and 1950. The Light Years covers the build-up to the Second World War and – in culinary terms – is a masterclass in the writer’s use of food to locate a story in a particular moment in time. Continue reading “Food as distraction”