Primære faneblade

  • Helen Rebanks: The Farmer's Wife
    Af Helen Rebanks (2023)
    Summary: 'True, unflinching, powerful, lyrical' Kate Mosse 'It's quite an achievement to shine a light of truth on the often idealised, always understated, role of the farmer's wife.' RAYNOR WINN 'Wonderful, inviting, wholesome.' Observer 'Very moving, real and true.' AMY LIPTROT 'Enchanting, funny, fearless. . . a luminously beautiful memoir.' Spectator 'Beautiful and very honest.' CAITLIN MORAN 'Authentic and affecting.' SARAH LANGFORD 'Lovely, warm and real, it made me cry and cook and think. ' ELLA RISBRIDGER A portrait of life at Helen Rebanks' Lake District farmhouse that beautifully captures the unsung work of keeping a home and raising a family. As dawn breaks on the farm, Helen Rebanks makes a mug of tea, relishing the few minutes of quiet before the house stirs. Within the hour the sounds of her husband, James, and their four children will fill the kitchen. There are also six sheepdogs, two ponies, 20 chickens, 50 cattle and 500 sheep to care for. Helen is a farmer's wife. Hers is a story that is rarely told, despite being one we think we know. Weaving past and present, Helen shares the days that have shaped her. This is the truth of those days: from steering the family through the Beast from the East and the local authority planning committee, to finding the quiet strength to keep going, when supper is yet to be started, another delivery man has assumed he needs to speak to the 'man of the house', and she would rather punch a cushion than plump it. This beautifully-illustrated memoir, which takes place across one day at the farm, offers a chance to think about where our food comes from and who puts it on the table. Helen's recipes, lists and gentle wisdom helps us to get through our days, whatever they throw at us. Readers love The Farmer's Wife 'Lovely. . . the book equivalent of getting up before everyone else to enjoy the silence of the day.' 'Evocative and thought-provoking. . . a beautiful, lyrical read that gives voice to the 'pushes and pulls' of everyday life.' 'A beautifully written manifesto for the life she's chosen to lead' 'A beacon of light. . . I've never read a memoir quite like this.&apos

  • Caitlin Moran: How to Be a Woman
    Af Caitlin Moran (2012)
    Summary: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The book that launched a feminist revolution—the hilarious memoir/manifesto from Caitlin Moran, "the UK's answer to Tina Fey, Chelsea Handler, and Lena Dunham all rolled into one" (Marie Claire). Though they have the vote and the Pill and haven't been burned as witches since 1727, life isn't exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them? Caitlin Moran interweaves provocative observations on women's lives with laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own, from the riot of adolescence to her development as a writer, wife, and mother. With rapier wit, Moran slices right to the truth—whether it's about the workplace, strip clubs, love, fat, abortion, popular entertainment, or children—to jump-start a new conversation about feminism. With humor, insight, and verve, How to Be a Woman lays bare the reasons why female rights and empowerment are essential issues not only for women today but also for society itself

  • Kimberly McIntosh: Black Girl, No Magic
    Summary: 'This book is a glowing achievement by one of the best essayists of her generation' Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff 'Witty, fresh and full of life' Liv Little 'I can't recommend more highly... it's one of those books that I just want to press in the hands of everybody' Damian Barr, Literary Salon Podcast Kimberly McIntosh has lived a full life, with a loving family, messy friendships, mind-expanding travel and all-night parties. She's also spent that life wondering why such opportunities aren't always available to people who look like her. Stemming from years of social policy research and campaign work, this essay collection brings together all that Kimberly has learned; whether that's dismantling the myth of social mobility for those who toe the line, to understanding why her teenage Facebook posts are quite so cringe. In it, she uses her own experiences to reveal how systematic injustice impacts us all, from the pressure of nuclear families, to enduring toxic friendships, to how painful it can be to watch Love Island. Perfect for fans of Slay In Your Lane, Trick Mirror, and Bad Feminist, this dazzling debut collection brilliantly melds the personal and political to not only tell the story of a life, but what that life might teach us

  • Michael Shaikh: The Last Sweet Bite : When War Changes the Menu
    Af Michael Shaikh (2025)
    Summary: War changes every part of human culture: art, education, music, politics. Why should food be any different? For nearly twenty years, Michael Shaikh's job was investigating human rights abuses in conflict zones. Early on, he noticed how war not only changed the lives of victims and their societies, it also unexpectedly changed the way they ate, forcing people to alter their recipes or even stop cooking altogether, threatening the very survival of ancient dishes. A groundbreaking combination of travel writing, memoir, and cookbook, The Last Sweet Bite uncovers how humanity's appetite for violence shapes what's on our plate. Animated by touching personal interviews, original reporting, and extraordinary recipes from modern-day conflict zones across the globe, Shaikh reveals the stories of how genocide, occupation, and civil war can disappear treasured recipes, but also introduces us to the extraordinary yet overlooked home cooks and human rights activists trying to save them. From a sprawling refugee camp in Bangladesh and a brutal civil war in Sri Lanka to the drug wars in the Andes and the enduring effects of America's westward expansion, Shaikh highlights resilient diasporic communities refusing to let their culinary heritage become another casualty of war. Much of what we eat today or buy in a market has been shaped by violence; in some form, someone's history and politics is on the dinner table. The Last Sweet Bite tells us how it got there. Weaving together histories of food, migration, human rights, and recipes, Shaikh shows us how reclaiming lost cuisines is not just a form of resistance and hope but also how cooking can be a strategy for survival during trying times

  • Sophie Cachia: Then There Was You : Captivating true life stories of self-discovery and reinvention
    Af Sophie Cachia (2023)
    Summary: Then There Was You is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Sophie Cachia's bestselling memoir Then There Was Her . In Then There Was Her , Sophie Cachia revealed how falling in love with a woman turned her whole world upside down. Her story inspired thousands of readers to reach out, wanting to share their own journeys of sexual and romantic discovery. Then There Was You is a captivating true life collection of stories told to Sophie about heartbreak, passion, bravery and the healing power of shared experiences. After 18 years (and two kids) with her male partner, a woman finds her missing puzzle piece following a chance encounter with a beautiful woman at a wedding. A woman and her husband are house-hunting for a bigger place ... so her boyfriend can move in with them all. Her first serious relationship was toxic, and emotionally and psychologically abusive – and it ends in tragedy

  • Helen Keller: The World I Live In
    Af Helen Keller (2013)
    Summary: In her earlier works, Helen Keller described the details of the early illness that left her deaf and blind, and in the prevailing opinion of the day, unable to be educated, as well as the methods that were eventually used to teach her how to communicate. In the remarkable memoir The World I Live In , Keller offers a much more personal take on her situation, inviting readers inside her own personal experience

  • Augusten Burroughs: Magical Thinking : True Stories
    Summary: From the #1 bestselling author of Running with Scissors and Dry —a contagiously funny, heartwarming, shocking, twisted, and absolutely magical collection. True stories that give voice to the thoughts we all have but dare not mention. It begins with a Tang Instant Breakfast Drink television commercial when Augusten was seven. Then there is the contest of wills with the deranged cleaning lady. The execution of a rodent carried out with military precision and utter horror. Telemarketing revenge. Dating an undertaker. And much more. A collection of true stories that are universal in their appeal, yet unabashedly intimate and very funny

  • Tania De Rozario: Dinner on Monster Island : Essays
    Summary: In this unusual, engaging, and intimate collection of personal essays, Lambda Literary Award finalist Tania De Rozario recalls growing up as a queer, brown, fat girl in Singapore, blending memoir with elements of history, pop culture, horror films, and current events to explore the nature of monsters and what it means to be different. Tania De Rozario was just twelve years old when she was gay-exorcised. Convinced that her boyish style and demeanor were a sign of something wicked, her mother and a pair of her church friends tried to "banish the evil" from Tania. That day, the young girl realized that monsters weren't just found in horror tales. They could lurk anywhere—including your own family and community—and look just like you. Dinner on Monster Island is Tania's memoir of her life and childhood in Singapore—where she discovered how difference is often perceived as deviant, damaged, disobedient, and sometimes, demonic. As she pulls back the veil on life on the small island, she reveals the sometimes kind, sometimes monstrous side of all of us. Intertwined with her experiences is an analysis of the role of women in horror. Tania looks at films and popular culture such as Carrie, The Witch, and The Ring to illuminate the ways in which women are often portrayed as monsters, and how in real life, monsters are not what we think. Moving and lyrical, written with earnest candor, and leavened with moments of humor and optimism, Dinner on Monster Island is a deeply personal examination of one woman's experience grappling with her identity and a fantastic analysis of monsters, monstrous women and the worlds in which they live

  • Af Bee Wilson (2025)
    Summary: 'Extraordinary' TELEGRAPH ????? 'Bee Wilson is one of my favourite writers and this may be her best book' CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN This strikingly original account from award-winning food writer Bee Wilson charts how everyday objects take on deeply personal meanings in all our lives. One ordinary day, the tin in which Bee Wilson baked her wedding cake fell to the ground at her feet. This should have been unremarkable, except that her marriage had just ended. Unsettled by her own feelings about the heart-shaped tin, Wilson begins a search for others who have attached strong and even magical meanings to kitchen objects. She meets people who deal with grief or pain by projecting emotions onto certain objects, whether it is a beloved parent's salt shaker, a cracked pasta bowl or an inherited china dinner service. Remembering her own mother, a dementia sufferer, she explores the ways that both of them have been haunted by deciding which kitchen utensils to hold on to and which to get rid of when you think you are losing your mind. Looking to different continents, cultures and civilisations to investigate the full scope of this phenomenon, Wilson blends her own experiences with a series of touching personal stories that reflect the irrational and fundamentally human urge to keep mementos. Why would a man trapped in a concentration camp decide to make a spoon for himself? Why do some people hoard? What do gifts mean? How do we decide what is junk and what is treasure? We see firsthand how objects can contain hidden symbols, keep the past alive and even become powerful symbols of identity and resistance; from a child's first plate to a refugee's rescued vegetable corers. Thoughtful, tender and beautifully written, The Heart-Shaped Tin is a moving examination of love, loss, broken cups and the legacy of things we all leave behind. 'This beautifully written book about the deep significance of certain objects in our kitchen – is nothing less than an intense, compassionate expression of the human condition ... Both intimate and expansive, The Heart-Shaped Tin is a book I know I'll give, urgently and importantly, to those I love ... I had to sit quietly with myself for a while after finishing this' Nigella Lawson, author of How To Eat 'I loved this book ... Very few food writers can do what Bee does. It made me think again – and with more tenderness – about the kitchen objects that I ordinarily take for granted. These are the human stories embedded in our material culture, and Bee brings them effortlessly to life' Ruby Tandoh, author of Eat Up 'Heart-wrenching and heart-warming in equal measure. No one is so good at capturing the everyday magic of kitchens, cooking and life as Bee Wilson' Letitia Clark, author of Bitter Honey 'A moving and fascinating exploration of the vital role played by household objects in our love of home and family' Sophie Hannah, author of Couple at the Table

  • Nigel Slater: A Thousand Feasts : Small Moments of Joy ... A Memoir of Sorts
    Af Nigel Slater (2024)
    Summary: THE INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER From award-winning writer Nigel Slater, comes a new and exquisitely written collection of notes, memoir, stories and small moments of joy. 'Nigel Slater's prose is the rarest delicacy of all: exquisite yet effortless, filled with heart, tenderness, yearning and humour' ELIZABETH DAY For years, Nigel Slater has kept notebooks of curiosities and wonderings, penned while at his kitchen table, soaked in a fisherman's hut in Reykjavik, sitting calmly in a moss garden in Japan or sheltering from a blizzard in a Vienna Konditorei. These are the small moments, events and happenings that gave pleasure before they disappeared. Miso soup for breakfast, packing a suitcase for a trip and watching a butterfly settle on a carpet, hiding in plain sight. He gives short stories of feasts such as a mango eaten in monsoon rain or a dish of restorative macaroni cheese and homes in on the scent of freshly picked sweet peas and the sound of water breathing at night in Japan. This funny and sharply observed collection of the good bits of life, often things that pass many of us by, is utter joy from beginning to end. 'I loved this. It is a secular book of hours – thoughts and pleasures beautifully cadenced and generously placed' Edmund de Waal '?Nigel Slater has a magical capacity to find beauty in the smallest moments. A nourishing, sustaining book' Olivia Laing 'His evocative, uplifting observations are a balm for life: a prose-poem for eaters and a spiritual companion for thoughtful cooks. A true and enduring joy' Nigella Lawson 'You can't always feel buoyant and grateful but noticing – and getting pleasure from – the seemingly insignificant is a good way to live. As he says, feel the "small moments of joy"' Diana Henry

  • Leo Tolstoy: What to Do?
    Af Leo Tolstoy (2012)
    Summary: Today, Leo Graf Tolstoy is regarded as one of world's foremost masters of prose. In his lifetime, he was responsible for creating such works of genius as War and Peace and Anna Karenina . In addition to his keen insight into the small details of family life, Tolstoy had a penetrating perspective on the sweeping social trends facing Russia and the world at large. Both themes are explored at length in What to Do?