Summery books to relax

Short reviews by Madhuri of books about travel and food, by Anthony Edwards, Prue Leith, Gail Duff; and an ode to her Collins English Dictionary

Voyaging to the Sun
Adventures in the French Canals & the Med
by Anthony Edwards

I’d read two other books by this writer and enjoyed them, so ordered more. This one was so funny, so often, I was roaring and guffawing late into the night. The author seems to be an exceptionally jubilant sort, and in his youth he married a teenage girl from a very loving family. Together they took jobs aboard yachts belonging to rich people – he as Captain (he’d studied and qualified) and she as cook (she also studied). All kinds of things could and did go wrong – and very right. I am certain I have never read another book wherein so many attacks of helpless laughter have occurred (to the characters! In this case, the author was already fun-loving, and his wife was given to utterly collapsing with laughter). Most, though not all, of these seemed to happen when somebody fell in whatever body of water they were navigating.

Here we have a voyage across France on canals in a peculiar dodgy boat that was sometimes too tall for the bridges and tunnels; voyages amongst Mediterranean islands in good weather and terrible, sometimes with passengers of assholish temperament (including, I’m sorry but not surprised to say, some spoilt and/or scoundrelly Americans). There’s the tale of the captain-for-hire who accidentally spilt bleach on the carpet in the main room of an absent owner’s yacht and took desperate measures to fix it… and what happened after, and there are descriptions of wonderful times had by souls who were good at enjoying their good fortune.
Interestingly, the author witnessed an amazing healing done by a Naturopath, and became one himself – a career he pursued fully alongside his Captaining, it seems.

It’s an indie book and suffers from terrible layout and numerous typos; but we just don’t care, because it is so much fun. I like this sort of rough-and-ready adventure memoir – there’s an innocence and intrepidness alongside any frank silliness. And the adventures are well worth telling.

The House at Chorlton
by Prue Leith

I’d read two other books by this writer – a memoir and a very good novel – so I was happy to find this in the local book-trading booth. Because the writer is a famous foodie – chef, restaurateur, and author of 12 cookbooks – her fiction has lots of descriptions of cooking, eating, and ingredient-sourcing. I like foodie memoirs a lot, so why not foodie fiction?

The action goes from 1940 to 1950 and centres around a family with a big house in Gloucestershire. During the war the young men are all away fighting and being killed, and men in prisoner-of-war camps – Poles, Italians, etc – come to be integrated to a certain degree into local life, such that they work on farms, move about freely, and even date the daughters. Here we have a determined young woman who ‘gets into trouble’ and also falls in love – but not, it seems likely, with the same man. Her father kicks her out, and a love story ensues, with the young woman and her lover moving to London and eventually opening a chain of restaurants.

The book is mostly a cozy love letter to good food plus love, and has extended-family dramas, friendships, griefs, childbirths, and class struggles a-plenty. I liked the characters, and thought it would make a rewarding movie. It’s a fairly-good-saga-plus-food. (The fact that I wouldn’t or couldn’t eat almost any of it doesn’t seem to matter in the least.)

Ideas for Cooking Vegetables

It’s obvious that this has been my favourite cookbook of all time! Sunset is, or was, a magazine devoted to California scenery and food and so on. Since California grows veggies in such wonderful profusion, a cookbook devoted to them has an expansive confidence.

I took this on my travels for years, using it in Switzerland particularly. There’s a lot of dairy and other possibly- objectionable ingredients called for, but you can always substitute or leave things out. I can only say that whatever I made from this book turned out delicious! I also scribbled in the book. Looking back through, these things are marked as “Good!”: Blanched Creamed Dandelion Greens, Alsatian Soup, Celery Avocado Green Salad, Creamy Baked Corn… All sorts of veggies are featured, including ones you don’t so often find in cookbooks.

It’s illustrated with drawings rather than photos. My copy says “11th printing, 1981.”

The Countryside Yearbook
A Cook’s Calendar
by Gail Duff
Illustrated by Linda Garland

I found this book in the local book-trading booth. It’s from 1982, and it’s all about foraging wild foods and cooking them. It’s illustrated with wonderful paintings of the wild plants and the countrysides in which they grow. I’m a very keen forager myself but my focus is relatively limited: wild garlic, dandelion, blackberry, raspberry, nettle. Here we have chickweed, broom, coltsfoot, puffball, sorrel, elder, woodruff, and much more. The recipes lean towards cream and eggs and bacon, but there are some suitable for vegans.

Examples of non-vegan as well as more veggie or vegan dishes: Woodruff Ice Cream, Elderflower Fritters with Gooseberry Purée, Mallow Gumbo, Rowan Jelly, Rose Hip and Honey Syrup, Broom and Almond Custards, Butter Bean Salad with Ground Elder, Coltsfoot Ice Cream, Broom Beer, Chickweed and Cheese Salad, Laverbread and Potato Cakes, Clover Pickle.

Mainly though I found the book gorgeous as a book: agreeable matte off-white paper, those lovely paintings. It’s actually an any-year calendar as well.

Collins English Dictionary

Lucubration

Husky one
who shares my bed
joggles my tummy
with his head

Square-shouldered, heavy
while I gaze
into his eyes,
hear what he says –

Absorbing, trying,
both at once –
often treats me
like a dunce

He’s studied almost
everything
knows far more
than any king –

He’s all I’ve got,
so I embrace
my reading-glasses
to his face

In deep communion
do we lie
as the night
goes speeding by –

He’s neither smelly,
though, nor hairy
for he is…

my dictionary!

501 Must-Visit Natural Wonders

If I were rich and looking for someplace to go for a walking holiday, I’d much rather sit peacefully looking in this book than battle my way about on the noisy internet. Each location has a beautiful photo, a few paragraphs of description, and a small list: “What is it? How to get there. When to go. Nearest town.” And “Don’t miss…” The country is noted on a coloured tab at the side of the page.

I’m already utterly beguiled by the New Zealand entries, and there are many places featured that I’ve never heard of. Blessedly, unlike in the National Geographic magazines many of us remember from childhood, there aren’t a lot of pesky humans shown in this nice fat book. (544 pages!) Just gorgeous places you want to go to, and sometimes a boat or two. And some creatures.

These reviews were first posted on Facebook by the author
Featured image by by cottonbro studio: pexels.com