James Hamilton Paterson : Rancid Pansies

The third book in the Gerald Samper series finds our hero holing up at his friend’s home in Suffolk after his house in Italy falls over a cliff.

Hoddle St fusion

Ruth Reichl: Garlic and Sapphires

Christmas lunch in Antarctica

At the Australian Casey station Michelin-trained chef Justin and his team are busy preparing a mouth-watering banquet that will include all of the traditional roasted Christmas fare, alongside more contemporary offerings like smoked salmon, prawns, and even sushi.

Roast swan with green mashed potatoes

If, like Gert, you love big personalities with a sizeable helping of the fraud or impostor, you’ll enjoy this article by Edward White in The Paris Review about Fanny Cradock, the face and voice of cooking on British television from the mid-’50s to the mid-’70s [who was] once described by one national newspaper as “a preposterous character, the foodie you loved to loathe.” She actually wasn’t much of a cook – mincemeat omelette, anyone? – but she was an excellent self-promoter, a brand before the time when celebrities were brands.

Alexander McCall Smith

 

It is not often the Gerts write about books they haven’t read, but in this case, when we all seem in need of cheering up, I have put aside my review of Ali Smith’s Autumn and Winter and given space to two books which will give us a jolly good laugh.

Sweet and sour cane-toad

 

The miracle of the scones

 

All Australia is in a roar of excitement over the announcement that the Pope is to canonize the second Australian saint.

The Disgusting Food Museum

Fair shake of the sauce bottle, cobber. It’s a bit unfair to put Vegemite on the same plane as sheep’s eyeball juice and fruit bats or roasted guinea pigs.

Do-it-yourself Roman feast