Welcome to Litsy!

The Masons, the greenhouse and now tennis. Why marry (Joan) in the first place if (Dad) wanted to do so many things that excluded her?
(p207)

Dad kneels by his bed and says his prayers as he always does. It amazes me that a man who can be so strict, fierce and cold actually thinks he has a right to speak to God.
(p161)

Such a warm-hearted yet heartbreaking book, maybe not the best choice for bedtime reading; if anyone ever reviewed food writing of mine and called me the Proust of the Nesquik era, I would be chuffed! It‘s quoted as a review snippet for this memoir.

“Fish came from the fish shop rather than in breadcrumbed sticks (I didn‘t taste a fish finger till I was nineteen)” (55).

It‘s starting to dawn on me how sad it is that so few of us will think of why mass-produced food exists in the forms it does; in 1960s England, you would‘ve had to be well-off to afford healthy, fresh produce.

Have things changed for the better? It takes time and skill to cook. We talk ourselves out of devoting this time.

Started new book for bedtime reading. So far it‘s funny, warm-hearted, tender, far too relatable in terms of childhood fears, how what we taste and smell evokes either our base comforts or worries, how much this shapes us as adults.

Loving the references to some of my fave British sweets of old too.

It‘s impossible not to love someone who makes toast for you

Front row seats this afternoon for Toast - the stage play. It was super fun - at one point a character on stage invites all 600 members of the audience to open the Walnut Whips we‘d been handed during the interval and there‘s a good few minutes pause whilst we all eat! Fabulous!

From one of my all time favorite food writers. This book is a raw, honest story of his childhood told through stories of the food that was a part of his home. I read it in one sitting.

#marchintoreading #day24 My #autobuyauthors (clockwise from top left) Nigel Slater, David Nicholls, Sarah Winman, Donna Tartt, Jamie Oliver, Audrey Niffenegger, Kazuo Ishiguro and my beloved Alan Cumming... will read anything that any of them write.... 😍📚

Waaay more intimate than I expected. Refreshingly real, if highly stylized à la Slater.