Keeping the Queens (and other royal ladies) Straight

Fiction based round real historical figures – the English royal family especially – is popular, but can be confusing. The same names and titles appear and reappear, worn by different people in different generations, and just when you think you’ve got it all worked out, they all swap sides or get themselves attained and surrender their titles along with their heads.

I’ve often turned to the history books for a bit of enlightenment so when one of the borrowers at my library this week called out “Help! I’m lost in the fifteenth century and I can’t keep my Elizabeths and Margarets straight”.  I knew exactly what she was feeling, and what books might help.

Top of the list is Alison Weir’s “Britain’s Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy”.  This is a comprehensive listing of the genealogies of England and Scotland’s royal families from 800AD to (almost) the present.  It lists legitimate as well as illegitimate children and notes the sources for the information presented.  Its definitely helpful in sorting out the exact relationships between the various royal ladies, but does require a bit of concentration to follow.

Next on my list is Lisa Hilton’s “Queens Consort” that examines the lives of the twenty women who were queens consort of England between 1066 and 1503, and the contributions – or otherwise – they made to the shaping and stability of their nation.  From Matilda of Flanders, whose alliances were vital to the success of the Norman invasion, to Eleanor of Aquitaine and Isabella of France who rebelled against their husbands, to queen Berengaria, who never actually set foot in England and finally Anne Neville, who as  the Lancastrian dowager Princess of Wales married her first husbands murderer to become the Yorkist Queen.  This meticulously researched and rigorous text goes beyond simple biography to examine the development of the role of queen in the English context. A role predicated on but not limited to marriage to the king and that involved both tremendous influence and vulnerability.

I’d also recommend Helen Castor’s “She Wolves: The Women WhoRuled England Before Elizabeth” for a more detailed look at the Empress Maud, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou, the royal women who actively sought to rule themselves, with mixed success, during the medieval period.  Helen Castor has also presented a very watchable television series with the same title.

For a more detailed look at the later medieval period – the time of the war of the roses, Sarah Gristwood’s “Blood Sisters: The HiddenLives of the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses” is an excellent read.  It gives an account of the lives of seven royal women between 1445-1509 (Margaret of Anjou, Cecily Nevile, Margaret Beaufort, Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret of Burgundy and Elizabeth of York) showing how changing circumstances, represented by the popular motif of the wheel of fortune, affected each and how they influenced their world.  Sarah Gristwood asks some interesting questions about the varied accounts that have survived of these royal women, and about the surprisingly few appearances that some make in contemporary records.

Another useful book focussing on this later period is “The Women of the Cousins' War: The Duchess,The Queen and the King’s Mother” by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin & Michael Jones.  This book comprises three short biographical essays on Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort, and an extended introduction that discusses the difference between 'history' and 'fiction' from the writer’s perspective, and the importance, challenges, rewards of writing women’s history.

Britain’s Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy by Alison Weir

Queens Consort by Lisa Hilton

She Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor

Blood Sisters: The Hidden Lives of the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses by Sarah Gristwood

The Women of the Cousins' War: The Duchess, The Queen and the King’s Mother by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin & Michael Jones

Best In Show - Knit your own dog (or cat)

These books are real gems!

I admit that I nagged our acquisitions team to buy these for the library for the strength of the titles alone.   It was hard work because I get the feeling they think we have enough crazy knitting books in the collection already. Once they arrived, I feel totally vindicated.

The books are beautifully produced with multiple photos and a very clean layout.  The dogs and cats are quite varied, with different body shapes for each breed, coat patterns created using intarsia & Fair Isle techniques and texture by yarn selections.  The patterns are clearly presented, the instructions are easy to follow, and the projects are achievable for even the most averagely talented knitter. 

The authors do suggest (mostly) Rowan yarns, which would be lovely, but possibly beyond some budgets, but any knitter worth the name will be able to raid their leftover stash for likely substitutes. (which explains the purple labrador I'm working on now, and the red mohair kitten I have planned for my next project).

The only problem with great knitting books is that they inspire you to knit, which of course, cuts into reading time.

Best in Show: Knit your own Cat

Best in Show: Knit your own Dog

Best in Show: 25 more Dogs to Knit

By Sally Muir & Joanna Osborn

2012 - My year of reading

2012 was the National Year of Reading in Australia, so I decided to make it my year of reading too and read 366 books: one for every day of the (leap) year.

I started with a few basic rules, the first being that a book is a book.  So for tally purposes, an 800 page fantasy epic equalled a 20 page children’s picture book with just a few words on each page. Given the number of times my children demand I reread their favourite books to them, the word count probably evens out.

In the case of cooking, knitting, interior design and decorating books, a quick flick through the pages to admire the illustrations would not constitute a “read”.   As enjoyable as this is, I believe it qualifies as a “browse”.  I’d count as read books that I examined in enough detail to work out the structure of the knitted object, or the palatability of the recipes.  Preferably, I’ll knit or cook from them.  I wouldn’t promise to decorate or design – anyone who has ever seen my home can attest that this is highly unlikely to happen ever – let alone in a year of reading.

Other rules I’d make up as I went along: I was reasonably sure that an album of lyrics and extensive liner notes should count as a book, as would reading a play or volume of poetry.  I wouldn’t generally count a magazine as a book, as much as I enjoy flicking through an issue of a Who or OK magazine at the hairdresser, but an edition of McSweeney’s, or The New Yorker might be the exception.

I wasn’t proposing to read evenly and complete a book a day, but cumulatively 366 over the (leap) year. I often have 3 or 4 books on the go at a time – a book I’m reading a chapter at a time with my daughters, a cook book I’m examining for the magical recipe everyone in the family will eat, and a novel to escape.

In 2011 I read over 200 books – surely 366 in 2012 won’t be too much of a stretch?

So what happened?  I did completed the first 6 months of my self imposed challenge.  At 30^th June, I’d read 182 books and decided to grant myself an honourable retirement.

Reading to a target required sacrifices.  I was happy to sacrifice exercise and housework time, reasonably happy to sacrifice television and blogging.  I wasn’t so happy to sacrifice my reading choice.

I use Goodreads to record the books that I read.  As I became increasingly focussed on my overall reading tally, I found that I was cutting down on the reading – news, articles, blogs – that could not be recorded on Goodreads.

I also found that I was forcing myself to complete books that I’d normally abandon as unenjoyable simply so that I could add them to my tally.

By 31^st December I’d completed 323 books: 122 adult fiction, 14 teen fiction, 20 junior fiction, 104 picture books, 59 adult non fiction and 4 junior non fiction.

Among the 122 adult fiction books read, I categorised 35 as literary, 23 romance, 21 historical and 16 crime. I also read a smattering of steam punk, fantasy, science fiction, ghost, graphic novels and short stories.  Many of the novels I read straddled a couple of genres, literary crime, historical mysteries, romantic steam punk.

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Of the adult non fiction books I read, 13 were biographies (mostly historical), 11 were cook books and 10 knitting.

I discovered new (to me) authors, read new books by favourite authors, and slogged through a few unenjoyable reads.  I won’t be setting myself such a  huge reading challenge again (I’d like to get back to some of the things I sacrificed last year) but I’m glad that I gave it a go.  I might not have achieved 366 books, but 323 is over 85%, and that’s a high distinction.

5 Stars

"I'd like to give it 5 stars" my 5 year old daughter said, "because the lion didn't eat anyone."

We both judge books according to how much we enjoyed reading them, as opposed, for example, to literary merit, cultural significance or the authors' writing talent. The short discussion I had with my daughter about rating picture books on Goodreads showed me, however, that we can be using quite different criteria in our judgements. We both enjoyed Deborah Niland's Its Bedtime, William, the story of a little boy who finds a lion in his room at bedtime. I enjoyed seeing the tables turned and a toddler having to deal with bedtime avoidance strategies from an unfamiliar angle. My daughter was pleased that the lion was satisfied with an apple as a bedtime snack, and William survived to string out bedtimes in the future.

The ratings that I give reflect my personal and usually immediate reaction to a book. How I feel about a particular book on a particular day is, however, influenced by a whole range of factors. Was I in the right mood for this book? Was it written in the style I like, or a genre I enjoy? Did it suffer in comparison to other book I've read recently, or have I given it a higher rating than I would otherwise because it stood out in a field of less than enjoyable reads? While I do sometimes go and back and adjusted ratings (usually, but not always, down), the fact remains that the ratings I give are an emotional response not an objective one.

When I first started using Goodreads, it was to record what I’ve read because my memory for titles and authors is so unreliable.   After a while, I decided I’d use the rather clumsy  star rating system to record  how much I’d enjoyed the books, because even with authors, titles and cover images recorded, my memory again proved unreliable.  Though I’ve sometimes found the reviews written by other Goodreads users useful, I decided against writing any myself, reasoning that any time spent writing means less time for reading. And I would rather be reading.

Readit 2011: Geekreads

I approached geek reads, the readit 2011 theme for August, with trepidation. Science just does not stick with me.  However clearly a theory is explained, however well I think I understand, it's all gone with the turn of the page.  I think it's something to do with how poorly my mind processes symbols, numbers and patterns. I don't spell well, I can't play card games without muddling the suits and forgetting the rules and I have tremendous trouble remembering my home phone number and car numberplate.

So I approached Matthew Hedman's The Age of Everething: How Science Explains the Past with care.  This book explains a range of methods that scientists use to determine age. Aimed at non scientists, it is clearly written with very accessible explanations.  To ease myself in gently, I decided that I'd  just read a few chapters.  Though many were tempting (the Mayan calendar, the pyramids, human DNA) , my passion for Tony Jones' Time Team pushed me in the direction of the chapters that dealt with Carbon 14 dating.

Hedman first explains atomic structure, the difference between normal carbon (carbon 12) and carbon 14, and why measuring the amount of carbon 14 in organic deposits can be used to determine the age of those deposits.  He takes a brief step in the direction of quantum physics to address the question of why, if each carbon 12 atom could change  to a cabon 14 atom at any point, they do so in a nice uniform, yet individually unpredictable way that makes carbon dating possible.  I was quite happy with the explanation, which as I understand it can be summarized as 'because'.  This is the sort of scientific explanation that is within my grasp. 

I read another chapter, dealing with the practical application of the science in dating the human habitation of the Americas, and at this point, feeling quite pleased with my progress, put the book down.  I'd like to go back and read more chapters at a point when I can find some quiet stretches of time and give it my full attention.

Sally Magnusson's The Life of Pee: The Story of how Urine got Everywhere is an ideal book to read when quiet time is not plentiful, and you can just fit  in a page or two at a time.  It is a collection of urine related facts, some scientific, some historical and some just plain strange.  The entries, in short paragraphs and arranged alphabetically, include  C for cocain (the use of wich can be accurately guaged by testing waste at sewage treatment plants) , M for Marathon Runners (who apparently do not stop to visit public toilets) and P for Picasso (who attempted to use urine to hasten the oxidation process on his bronze sculptures).  Mildly amusing and informative, it captured the interests of the kids who attended my library's after school book group.

My third geek read was a biography: Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution ( also published as Annie's Box and Creation) by Randal Keynes, a great great grandson of Charles Darwin.  The book emphasizes Charles Darwin's family life, with his wife Emma and  their 10 children, and suggests that this family life was influential in the development of Darwin's scientific theories.  Keynes shows the detailed notes that Darwin made observing his own children's early development, and those he made on the first orangutangs to be displayed at the London zoo, and argues that these, along with observations made on the Beagle voyage and then poetry of Wordsworth shaped Darwins thinking on human nature and evolution.  Further, Keynes argues that the death of Charles & Emma's eldest daughter, Annie, at age 10, led Charles (but not Emma) to a rejection of religious beliefs. He never attended church again after Annie's death. 

Keynes show just how radical Darwin's theories appeared to many of his contemporaries.  He also show Charles Darwin as a warm and loving family man, who welcomed and enjoyed the company of his chidren.

The Recipes in My Life

For me, cookbooks and food magazines are entertainment rather than applied science.   I flick the pages, browse the illustrations and occasionally read an entire recipe with no intention of doing anything so practical or active as actually preparing food.  My pallet is broad.  I'll browse any number of international cuisines, celebrity chefs & quirky ingredients.  I'm particularly partial healthy lifestyle and gourmet cookery, opposites that to me represent lifestyles I'm equally unlikely to experience. A sweet tooth and a fondness for pretty pictures adds to my enjoyment cake decorating books, and I felt great kinship with a group of preschoolers who visited my library and 'read' a birthday cake book together. They examined every image, discussed the desirable features of each cake, then (in contravention of our no food in the library policy), 'ate' each page, accompanied by gobbling sounds.

Occasionally, though, I am inspired to actually try a recipe, and even more occasionally, that recipe becomes a regular in our food repertoire.

Some of these recipes have suited us so well that we aim to reproduce them in every detail, including suggested accompaniments. These include 'Pork Steaks with Brown Sugar Apples' (Marie Claire Food Fast) 'Carrot & Thyme Tart' (The New Glucose Revolution Life Plan), 'Steamed Chicken Breast' (Stephanie Alexander's The Cooks Companion), 'Garjar, Aloo, Mattar' (Vicky Bohgal's Cooking Like Mummyji) and 'Chicken with Pumpkin & Spicy Sauce' from the long defunct SimplyLite magazine (Summer 2000 edition).

Some recipes require a little tweaking.  I prefer to use Balti curry paste, rather than Korma when making 'Spicy Chickpea Fritters' (Super Food Ideas, February 2010 edition) and always omit the flour when cooking Stephanie Alexander's excellent 'Bolognaise Sauce'. 'Moroccan Roasted Sweet Potato Soup' (The Soup Book) becomes more kid friendly if commercially mixed Harissa is replaced with a home made spice blend with less chili, and 'Banana & Almond Loaf', (Gabriel Gate’s Family Food) is much enhanced by doubling the cinnamon and sultanas and omitting the almonds.

Sometimes, we've combined elements from two recipes.  'Carrot Soup with Hazelnut Dukkah' (Australian Gourmet Traveler, August 2007 edition) becomes a heartier meal when chickpeas are added, as suggested by the recipe for 'Carrot & Chickpea Soup' (Super Food Ideas, May 2009 edition), but possibly less gourmet when the Dukkah is omitted, as suggested by my kids. Elements from both the 'Sweet Cherry Tomato & Sausage Bake'' (Jamie At Home) and 'Brunch Bake' (Taste.com) have combined to make a oven baked sausage and veg dish that all members of my family will eat without argument.

There are some seasonal features in our repertoire.  If I don't get round to making the 'Light Fruit Cake' (Australian Gourmet Traveler, November 2001 edition) that features dried pawpaw, pineapple, apricots, peaches and pistachios at Christmas time, I'll cook it a few weeks later for my husbands birthday. While my mum continues to advocate for the pastry recipe she learnt at school (which she enticingly describes as 'half fat to flour'), I always make my mince pies using with 'Almond Pastry' (Australian Gourmet Traveler, December 2004 edition).  I would not, however, dream of making my own fruit mince as suggested.  Jars of Robinson's fruit mince are one family tradition from which I will not deviate. My annual contribution to our family's Christmas buffet (and anywhere else I'm asked to bring a plate) is 'Roasted Warm Potato Salad' (Potatoes: From Gnocchi to Mash). My habit is so well known that when someone bought a similar dish to a recent get together, everyone assumed that they were just helping to carry my offering. Ever since, I've taken my second string salad: a mix of leaves with 'Dressing for Green Salad' (The Cooks Companion).

The particular stage in our lives at which some recipes became regulars is easy to pinpoint.  We first cooked 'Pasta with Pepper Relish' (Delia's  How To Cook) when a lengthy period of painful acid reflux banished tomatoes, and consequently the pasta sauces we regularly cooked, from our diet. 'Cheese Sauce' (Robin Barker's Baby & Toddler Meals) was a standard when our children were at the mush eating stage. In the months after we acquired an ice cream machine, 'Vanilla Bean Ice Cream' from (SimplyLite, Summer 2000 edition), and a home grown variation, coffee bean ice cream, were churned almost weekly. Our attempt to adapt a delicious recipe for strawberry and clove ice cream (Australian Gourmet Traveler November 2000) to create blueberry ice cream resulted in such an unappetizing icy mess that we have been permanently discouraged.

Some recipes, once firmly in our repertoire, have fallen away.  We can no longer make a delicious African inspired stew of turmeric rubbed chicken since the recipe, with its long list of spices, was lost. All attempts to recreate the dish from memory, or locate the original source (perhaps The New York Times magazine, from some time in the early 1990s) have been utter failures. Some of the more complex, time consuming or strongly flavoured dishes we enjoyed before having children have been retired too, among them 'Chicken with Red Wine Vinegar & Tomato' (The Cooks Companion) and 'Pork Fillet, Sweet Potato & Sesame Seed Salad' (Australian Gourmet On The Run) and 'Salmon Burgers' (Rosemary Stanton's Healthy Living Cookbook).  Thankfully, as they grow, the kids are both more willing to try a variety of dishes, and more able to consume some without making a major mess. Soup is back on the menu, after a short hiatus. I highly recommend 'Roast Pumpkin with Middle Eastern Spices' (Australian Gourmet Traveler, August 2001 edition), 'Roast Red Pepper, Fennel & Tomato' and 'African Sweet Potato Soup' (but caution that it does contain peanuts), both from The Soup Book.

The kids are enthusiastic in their support of regularly cooking and consuming the cakes in our repertoire. They both love 'Sticky Gingerbread Cake' (Healthy Lunchboxes for Kids), that can be relied upon to turn out well every time, no matter how many helping hands are dipped into the batter. 'Coconut Cake with Lime Syrup' (Australian Gourmet On The Run is a messier favorite. There have been some disappointments, though.   I will never forget the look of anger and dismay on the face of my eldest at 15 months, when the promised  'Buttermilk  Pancakes" (The Cooks Companion), were found to be more pan than cake. Though a favorite with most of the family, 'Simple Lemon Slice'  another find from The Cooks Companion (I double the base and cook the topping for  20 minutes longer than recommended) is too sharp for my youngest, and a recent discovery, 'Poppy Seed & Ricotta Cake with Lemon Curd' (Australian Gourmet Traveler, October 2010 edition), has been retired from family gatherings, since we discovered her poppy seed allergy.

Of course, not all recipes in our regular repertoire come from books.  Some come from friends: we regularly enjoy what is known as 'Michael's Bean Salad', though his partner has pointed out that it should more accurately be named after her, and  'Gayle's Mother-in-Law's Chocolate Fudge Slice' is a reliable favorite. Other meals are inspired by the food our parents fed us as children: South African inspired curries, English Shepherds Pie, Sausage  & Mash,  Egg & Chips, roast dinners with plenty of veg and casseroles.

Over the years of cook book browsing I've discovered many recipes that have transformed from words on a page to part of my life and the language of my family.  It's enough to encourage me to keep browsing.

Readit 2011: Whodunnit?

The Readit 2011 theme for July was Whodunnit?  While I don’t often read in this genre, advice from library borrowers and the Novelist Plus database led me too some excellent and varied writers, who in turn led me to conclude that I can only read a limited number of violent and psychopathic murders, before I need some light relief.

All but one of the books I read were part of series, which I found myself pursuing, partly because when I find an author I enjoy reading, I want to prolong that enjoyment, and partly to find out how the recurring characters develop (or don’t) over a number of books.

Mary Higgins Clark’s On the Street Where You Live is the one stand alone title that I read.  It deals with the murders of young women that parallel a series of unsolved killings that occurred in the same costal community more than a hundred years before.  Clark sets up a cast of potential victims and murderers, some with family links to the century old murders, introduces a long lost diary, the possibility of a re-incarnated killer and main character troubled by a broken marriage and stalker.  The tension builds, but reader never doubts that the killer will be found.

Cassandra Clark’s Red Velvet Turnshoe is the second book in a series featuring the Mediaeval Abbess of Meux.  I think that I would have taken more from this book if I had read the first and had a greater understanding of the relationships between the recurring characters, especially as Clark writes to obscure her central character’s thinking, distancing the reader from any emotional engagement.   I also wonder how realistic the depiction of a woman of this time travelling so extensively is.  Despite this, Clark successfully evokes the cold, dirt and discomfort of medieval travel, and writes some intriguing (incidental) characters.

Inger Ash Wolfe is the pseudonym of a “well known literary” author, according the jacket notes of The Calling.  The central character, Hazel Micalef, is a woman in her 60s, acting as a police chief in a small town in rural Canada.  She lives with her impressive mother, deals with crippling back pain, seriously unsupportive superiors and her ex husband (and his new wife) while solving what initially appears to be a series of unrelated killings of terminally ill victims. Wolfe gives the reader just enough glimpses of the killer, alongside the main narrative of the police investigation, to build the tension the reader feels to levels of real anxiety. Highly recommended, though gruesome.  Wolfe has written a second novel, featuring Hazel Micalef, The Taken.

Susan Hill’s “Simon Serailler” series, recommended by a borrower at my library, plays with detective novel conventions.  Serailler, a senior detective in an English Cathedral town, is a minor character in the first novel, The Various Haunts of Men.  The focus is on the characters, including a police detective, who are eventually murdered by a serial killer. In second novel, The Pure in Heart, the focus shifts to Serailler and his extended family, but the ‘crime’ - the disappearance and suspected murder of a child - remains unsolved until the third novel in the series: The Risk of Darkness.  Hill is not scared to cull her recurring characters, via death or promotion.  Nor is she scared to make her main character quite unattractively flawed. I’m looking forward to reading the fourth and fifth titles in the series.

Rennie Airth’s three novels span a twenty year period and feature John Madden, who in the first novel is a police inspector scarred by grief of loosing his family and the trenches of the first world war.  Set at roughly ten year intervals (River of Darkness in 1921, Blood Dimmed Tide in 1932 & Dead of Winter in 1944), the police are shown coming to terms with a range of investigative techniques, including forensics and psychological profiling, as they solve first the murder of an entire family at a country home, then the violent killing of a young child, and lastly the very professional killing of a young Polish refugee in wartime London. Though the novels, essentially police procedurals, do at times rely on coincidence and cliché (all the murderers have cold eyes), they feature a cast of well drawn characters who mature and develop over the series.  Very highly recommended.

Finally, for a little light relief, I turned to Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness novels. that are set in the early 1930s, and feature Georgie, the impoverished daughter of the late Duke of Glengary & Ranoch and granddaughter of Queen Victoria’s least attractive daughter.  Invited to lunch with cousin Queen Mary (who has her eye on some of the Ranoch treasures), Georgie is asked to perform a series of “favours”: Spy on Mrs Simpson (Her Royal Spyness), baby sit a foreign princess (A Royal Pain), discover the identity of a would be royal assassin (Royal Flush) & represent the royal family at a wedding in Transylvania (Royal Blood).  In all her endeavours, Georgie is supported by a cast of characters including her “bolter’ of a mother, her (non ducal) grandfather, an ex policeman inflicted with doubtful cockney rhyming slang, an old school chum of independent means living the high life and her love interest, a handsome but impoverished Irish charmer. These novels are a blend humour, drawing room comedy and cosy crime, but hint at the very real misery of depression gripped 1930s London.