Terry’s Chocolate Orange is a British Christmas staple thanks to a decades old, ingenious marketing campaign suggesting it as a perfect stocking stuffer — perhaps a play on the traditional orange often given at Christmas. Its storied roots go all the way back to York, England in the 1700’s where a confectioners shop sold candied lemon and orange peel. In the 1820’s Joseph Terry joined the company and introduced marmalades and chocolate and then, in the 1930’s, he got wildly creative and the classic Chocolate Orange was born. For as long as I can remember, their slogan has been “tap…
Cranberry sauce seems to be one of those things that everybody loves to hate. Not me. For me, it’s one of my favourite parts of Christmas dinner, in part, I suppose, because I never have it at any other time of the year. And while I’m certainly not above eating canned sauce if I’m a guest in someone else’s home —which means I’m not cooking, so a small sacrifice to pay in my estimation! — when I am the host, I will always make my own. (On a side note, I read somewhere recently that some people just take the…
Welcome to Glorious Tuga Francesca Segal London research vet, Charlotte Walker, travels to Tuga to study the endangered gold coin tortoise. Tuga is a tiny British territory reachable only twice a year via a very long boat ride. On her trip over, Charlotte suffers from horrible seasickness and is tended to by Dan, a doctor nervously returning to Tuga after 15 years in order to take over island doctor duties from his Uncle. Upon landing on the tropical paradise the two are swept into the warm embrace of a bevy of quirky islanders and enveloped in the sweet scent of…
The bucolic town of Eyam is nestled in the gently rolling hills of the Derbyshire dales. With its rambling roses and stone cottages, there isn’t much to differentiate its quaintness from other small towns in the area—except that Eyam has a tragic tale to tell. In 1664 the deadly plague known as the Black Death, or Bubonic Plague, had returned once again to bedevil. It was to be the last major outbreak of the disease in England, but as it went on its way, it took 100,000 Londoners with it: one quarter of the city’s population at the time. For the…
This is (not) Shepherd’s Pie because it’s actually Cottage Pie! And the difference, you ask? Well, the difference is that Shepherd’s Pie is made with ground lamb and Cottage Pie is made with ground beef. I make mine with ground beef and yet somehow I started calling it Shepherd’s Pie, despite the fact that I’m sure we called it Cottage Pie growing up. I have no idea at which point along the way I made such an egregious error, especially as I have never once made it with ground lamb, but, in my defense, I did read somewhere that the…
~Ninety-Nine Glimpses Of Princess Margaret Craig Brown This biography is a whimsical and highly entertaining mix of fact and fancy. It comes at its target from a myriad angles via diaries, biographies, palace announcements and lists — as in the possessions auctioned after her death or a chapter about the phrases coined in the year of her birth. And scattered throughout are re-imaginings of what might have happened if, say, she had married Peter Townsend. If you’ve watched The Crown you’ll have enjoyed Helen Bonham Carter’s magnificent portrayal of Princess Margaret in which she comes across as witty and whimsical, a…
Many, many moons ago, in the town of Eccles, Lancashire, an annual party was held to celebrate the construction of the church around which the town had grown. A right old knees up it was, with lots of food, drink, and Eccles cakes. Over time, the parties became a little, well, out of hand, as parties are wont to do sometimes.
Then along came Oliver Cromwell – pious puritan and crown usurper. Rumour has it that he deemed the Eccles’ parties as too pagan and Eccles’ cakes as too rich and sinful. Anyone caught eating one would be, well – thrown in jail!
Years ago, for kids everywhere in England, the turning of leaves from green to brown meant only one thing: conker season. School playgrounds would be filled with the swinging of chestnut brown conkers as children vied to attain superior conker status. I can’t say I played it much myself, but my younger brother was a huge fan. In an attempt to garner a champion conker he was forever soaking them in vinegar, or baking them in the oven where they would generally catch fire. The game of conkers is played by threading a string through the conker and holding it…
Four iconic British TV series — two from the seventies, two from the nineties. A little long in the tooth perhaps and lacking some of the bouncy lushness of a Bridgerton or Downton Abbey, but I like to think that these shows have a classic meets retro vibes feel that’s all their own. ~The House of Eliot Sisters Evie and Beatrice, brought up by a stick-in-the-mud father who gave them little in the way of niceties and education (their mother died giving birth to Evie) despite being an affluent physician, find themselves in dire straits when he dies. Turns…
Instructions for a Heatwave Maggie O’Farrell A family drama set against the infamous British heatwave of 1976. Robert Riordan, recently retired, husband to Gretta, gets up from the breakfast table one morning, leaves the house to buy a newspaper and doesn’t return. Gretta, the Irish matriarch of this family that has settled in London, calls her kids who then return home—including Aoife, the youngest, who hasn’t been seen in several years and currently lives in New York. From here we learn the backstories of each sibling and how they interact with each other. Michael Francis, a history teacher who put aside…
