Page 130 – A Little Bird

27th October 201431st August 2022

Good Food For Your Table by Melrose and Morgan

This is such a valuable little book. It’s not a cook book exactly, though it does contain plenty of excellent recipes, but a compendium to keep in your kitchen drawer and use often. Melrose and Morgan is a first rate grocery shop, with two branches, one in Hampstead and another in Primrose Hill, and a very loyal following. The shop is known and loved because it stocks such a good range of things to buy and because each product it offers has been so carefully sourced and chosen – so you know you are buying the best produce to cook, as well as delicious things to eat – light but proper lunch dishes, soups, pies and tarts, sandwiches and salads as well as lovely cakes and bread. It’s the kind of food shop that you find in every neighbourhood in New York, but which is woefully thin on the ground in London.

We can’t all shop at Melrose and Morgan, it’s true, but Good Food For Your Table is the next best thing, because in effect it teaches you to become a master grocer in your own home. It’s a guide to the best ingredients, what to buy and when, and how to source and store everything. Even more usefully, it tells you how to actually use all that stuff you store in your larder. We’re always forgetting, for example, if we should rinse quinoa before we cook it, or what ratio of water to use when making bulgar wheat. Good Food gives you the correct info on cooking every grain in a quick-glance chart, so you’re not endlessly thumbing through recipe books or going online when you just want a couple of simple guidelines. The book is full of similar tips, charts and explanations, about everything from vinegar to yoghurt, potatoes to eggs, coffee to pasta, spices to classic meat sauces and how to make them. It’s a gem of a book and will help any cook, whatever level.

21st October 201426th October 2021

Jeremy King’s Book Recommendations

Books at The Beaumont

Whenever I go to either a private home or hotel, I am always interested to see what reading material is on offer and whilst home owners are often keen to share favourites, Hotels often unfortunately fill their shelves with style rather than substance. My heart always lifts when
the books available are diaries, anthologies, memoirs or biographies because I can read without the frustration of not finishing them. To that end when choosing the books for The Beaumont, the criteria were somewhat selfishly defined by my preferences – but there again I always think that the best restaurants and hotels are those when the proprietor creates somewhere they would like to go to themselves and hope that sufficient people enjoy that experience themselves – witness Nick Jones and Soho House.

Each room at The Beaumont gets a selection of currently published books enhanced by second hand favourites in the same genre; the finding of which entailed me happily whiling away some time going through the shelves of Heywood Hill. I am grateful to owner Nicky Dunne with whom I had lots of fun debating which books to include although in fact some of my choices were dictated by availability.

First on my list, for example, was Citizens of London by Lynne Olson which was a great influence on my imaginary history of The Beaumont as it charts the history of America’s entry into the war thanks to the proslytising of Ambassador Gil Winant, Averell Harriman and legendary broadcaster Ed Murrow. Sadly out of print in hardback even in the States, it is a truly edifying work which deserves greater exposure and I believe it is only a matter of time before Gil Winant will be celebrated for the visionary and extraordinary man he was.

The selection was as follows:

Letters of Note: Correspondence deserving a better audience edited by Shaun Usher

A collection of 125 of the world’s most entertaining, inspiring and unusual letters that for me are the perfect hotel companion as even five minutes reading is memorable. From Virginia Woolf’s heart-breaking suicide letter, to Queen Elizabeth II’s recipe for drop scones sent to President Eisenhower; from the first recorded use of the expression ‘OMG’ in a letter to Winston Churchill, to Gandhi’s appeal for calm to Hitler; and from Iggy Pop’s beautiful letter of advice to a troubled young fan, to Leonardo da Vinci’s remarkable job application letter, Letters of Note is a celebration of the power of written correspondence which captures the humour, seriousness, sadness and brilliance that make up all of our lives.

The Ape has stabbed me: a cocktail of reminiscences by Vincent Poklewski Koziell

I was delighted to meet the author on a visit to The Beaumont and his sparkle matched his book. Vincent Poklewski Koziell arrived in Britain in 1939 as a young Polish refugee from the German occupation of Poland. His family, who were diplomats, were taken in during the war by their close friends the Duke and Duchess of Kent. Through this connection Vincent came into contact with many people from royalty, politics and the intelligentsia. After surviving the peculiarities of a British boarding school education, he was sent out to earn his keep and developed a broad curriculum vitae: he sold vacuum cleaners in Wandsworth, washing machines in Glasgow and houses in Sardinia. He worked as a butcher in the Bronx, negotiated the ‘Mad Men’ world of the 1950s advertising world in London, and ran a nightclub in Mayfair. Vincent is a born entertainer and raconteur. Makes me realise I have led a quiet and sheltered life!

Darling Monster: The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her son John Julius Norwich 1939-1952

Lady Diana Cooper was an aristocrat, society darling, an actress of stage and early screen. When she married rising political star Duff Cooper, they became the golden couple who knew everyone who was anyone; they sat at the very heart of British public life. Diana’s letters to her only son, John Julius Norwich, cover the period 1939 to 1952. They take us from the rumblings of war, through the Blitz, which the Coopers spent holed up in The Dorchester (because it was newer, and therefore less vulnerable, than the Ritz). Duff Cooper was appointed British Ambassador to France and the couple settled into the glorious embassy in post-Liberation Paris- I actually particularly like his diaries and was tempted to include instead of this choice but I prefer this collection. Diana emerges in these letters as highly intelligent, funny, fiercely loyal: a woman who disliked extravagance, who was often cripplingly shy, who was happiest in the countryside with her cow and goats and whose greatest love and preoccupation were her husband and son. As a portrait of a time and some of history’s most dramatic and important events, these letters are invaluable. But they also give us a vivid and touching portrait of the love between a mother and son, separated by war, oceans – and the constraints of the time they lived in. “Please, darling monster, write as often as you can. It’s so sad waiting for letters that don’t come and are not even written. I love my darling boy. Don’t treat me so badly again or I’ll have your lights and liver when I get home” (19 November 1939). One helluva Mother!

Flappers: Six women of a dangerous generation by Judith Mackrell

This choice was an obvious one for me and I devoured it when Judith Mackrell, an old friend and ballet critic, published this year. Glamorized, mythologized and demonized – the women of the 1920s prefigured the 1960s in their determination to reinvent the way they lived. ‘Flappers’ focuses on six women who between them exemplified the range and daring of the 20’s and 30’s. Diana Cooper (qv), Nancy Cunard, Tallulah Bankhead, Zelda Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker and Tamara de Lempicka were far from typical flappers despite embracing the styles & fashions of the period. Talented, reckless and wilful, with personalities that transcended their class and background, between them they blazed the trail of the New Woman around the world.

London Stories edited by Jerry White

London has the greatest literary tradition of any city in the world. Its roll-call of story-tellers includes cultural giants who changed the way the world thought about writing, like Shakespeare, Defoe and Dickens. But there has also been an innumerable host of writers who have sought to capture the essence of London and what it meant for the people who lived there or were merely passing through. They are stories of fact and fiction and occasionally something in between. Authors include many of my favourites: Thomas de Quincey, W. M. Thackeray, J.B. Priestley, Graham Greene, Maeve Binchy, Doris Lessing and Hanif Kureishi. Fascinating for a visitor and an insight into our literature as well as London.

20th October 201431st October 2014

India Knight’s In Your Prime: Older, Wiser, Happier

We find India Knight’s writing fairly addictive and her Sunday Times columns are often the highlights of our weekend reading. We’re thrilled therefore that she has published a new book, In Your Prime: Older, Wiser, Happier. It’s part memoir, part manual for women aged 40 – 65, and is quite frankly the book Knight was born to write. She takes a no holds barred approach so there are chapters on ailing parents and divorce but also a section on vaginal atrophy. The book, as well as being well-researched and reflective – particularly on parenting teenage children – is also never less than compassionate. She can be wickedly funny, not least on the dangers of looking like a ‘Hampstead Lady’ in middle age (“Vast, shapeless, genderless, sexless Japanese or Scandinavian clothes”), but offers the sort of advice you would expect from an opinionated, well-informed friend – a friend who might tease you or tell you that you need to lay off the Botox, but a friend nonetheless.

It’s unlikely that all of the chapters will be relevant to all women in their prime – if you haven’t had children, then you can skip the chapter on parenting, but you will probably still want to read about HRT or how to look after grey hair or the benefits of yoga. It is quite a bracing read, Knight’s writing tends to be, but is all the better for it. Also, a word on the target audience: if you’re 37, there will be things that are relevant to you and equally so if you are 70 – we’re the younger end of the spectrum and love it ourselves but will also be passing our copy on to our mum, for example.

14th October 201426th October 2021

Wall-Library

We’re huge fans of wallpaper. Yes it’s more costly than a lick of paint, but in our experience you get paid back in spades with warmth and atmosphere. So we were delighted to find a great wallpaper website that specialises in hand printed designer wallpaper. Wall-Library cleverly organises the wallpapers by both designers and colour schemes so even if you aren’t familiar with a brand, you can still find what you need. And many of the designers sell through only limited outlets such as Barnaby Gates (which we have raved about before here) or one of our current favourites, the Paris brand Bartsch. You can order samples by post and if you’re looking to furnish a nursery or kids room, they have a particularly great choice of children’s wallpapers too (including the genius colour-in your own wallpaper from The Mark on the Wall).

8th October 201431st August 2022

Patisserie Maison by Richard Bertinet

We’ll miss the Great British Bake Off now that Nancy has been crowned queen of puddings, but we have already found solace in the fantastic new book by master baker Richard Bertinet. Bertinet, who trained in Brittany, runs a renowned cookery school in Bath, which he set up in 2005, and where he teaches full time. (The Richard Bertinet Kitchen cookery school – do go for a masterclass if you can – we’ve done one with him and he is an inspired teacher). Bertinet is also an excellent cook book writer. We love all his books, which don’t just give you recipes but actually teach you, step by step, to bake (see Dough, Crust and Pastry) and cook (Cook). Bertinet’s instructions and recipes are precise, illustrated with helpful photographs, and they really and truly work.

We love his latest book, Patisserie Maison, because it’s a book we so don’t need – finally anyone who aspires to eating and living well should learn how to knock up pastry and a loaf of bread, but you really can live without mastering macarons, a chocolate liegeois or a tart tropezienne…and yet. And yet, we will relish using this book more than most because it offers the most fun (as well as serious techniques), especially as the nights draw in and there is more time to master things like choux pastry, a genoise sponge, creme patisserie and chocolate ‘pencils.’ Yes, all the fancy tricks you’ve seen in ‘Bake Off’ over the last ten weeks: they are all in here and loads more besides. Make no mistake: the puddings, cakes, mousses, tarts and treats in Patisserie Maison take lots of time to make (Bertinet is not interested in perfectionism but he is all about doing things well rather than offering short-cuts), but that’s what you sign up for when you make patisserie at home, and that’s the point. That and the applause you get, which you will get because if you follow Bertinet’s instructions, your bake will work. We know because we’ve already baked his Bûche de Noël (as you do in early October) and blackcurrant mousse (photographic evidence below). And then of course you get to eat it all.

8th October 201431st August 2022

Russell Brand’s Trickster Tales – The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Well, he is a modern day pied piper, isn’t he, so it makes sense that Russell Brand has now written the book – or at least re-told the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, in his own anarchic and totally unpatronising style. The book, which is out on November 6th, is the first in what will be a series of Trickster Tales by Brand, with two more to come, and we’re sure the set will become instant modern classics for children. The Pied Piper of Hamelin fizzes with Brand’s inventive intelligence and wit, and the stupendous illustrations by Chris Riddell are up there with the best we’ve ever seen. To celebrate this new project, Brand is doing an event, produced by his publisher, Canongate, which bills itself no doubt not inaccurately as a ‘family-friendly theatrical spectacular’ at the Royal Albert Hall. It sounds great. There will be magic, storytelling, live art by Riddell, and original (and live) music by composer Peter Raeburn, plus a whole host of characters on stage from naughty rats and arrogant townspeople to the hero, sharp-eyed Sam, as well as, of course, the Pied Piper himself.

All profits from the event will go to a range of literacy charities, and a good lot of tickets for the show have been donated to schools and children’s charities – so the evening really is all about celebrating story telling, and the audience will be on for having fun. Tickets (which include a copy of the book) will no doubt sell fast so do book now.

6th October 201426th October 2021

Catriona Gray on where to shop for mid-century furniture

For sheer choice, London has to be one of the best places in the world to buy furniture. From the antiques dealers of Portobello and the Lillie Road, to distinctly British stores such as Heal’s, Habitat, John Lewis and Liberty, there’s an enduring design tradition that’s all around us. For me, one of the most accessible furniture styles is mid-century. In Britain, this kind of design was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, as post-war restrictions lifted, ushering in a new, modern style of furnishing. The best thing about this type of furniture is that it’s suited to contemporary urban living – much of it was designed for compact flats, so it’s lightweight and often multi-purpose. It’s no wonder that it has come back into fashion and shops such as Heal’s are reissuing their original designs from this period. Although it’s possible to create a mid-century-inspired interior using new editions of old products, there are plenty of places in London that can offer you the real thing, second hand. Here are some of my favourites.

The Peanut Vendor

Situated on Newington Green, The Peanut Vendor is stuffed full of desirable homewares. Their main focus is upon Scandinavian furniture, and they know their stuff, often restoring pieces before selling them on. They’ve also branched out into second hand bicycles, and seem to be doing a roaring trade in those. Not especially cheap, but it has a nicely curated selection- you can view their stock on their website – and it has the added advantage of being in close proximity to Belle Epoque, one of the nicest French bakeries in London.

Lassco

With three branches – two in London, one in Oxford, LASSCO doesn’t do a particularly extensive selection of mid-century furniture, but its wide range of architectural salvage makes it an invaluable resource if you’re looking for unusual pieces to add character to an interior. Their ever changing stock might include anything from 1950s cinema seats to cast-iron baths. If you go to Brunswick House, make sure you check out the restaurant – it’s a hidden gem.

Planet Bazaar

This Camden shop, situated in the busy Stables Market, has a bit of a reputation as the place for mid century furniture, mainly because it was selling it long before anyone else caught on to the trend. It’s got quite an alternative vibe, as you’d expect from a shop situated in the midst of Camden market, and the furniture is ranged alongside modern curios and film memorabilia. Good for mid-century lighting and for colourful statement pieces.

Chase & Sorensen

Situated on Dalston Lane in Hackney, the owners of this shop spend a lot of time in Denmark; as a result, the shop’s packed full of teak and rosewood Scandinavian pieces dating between the 1940s and 1970s. As they’re willing to source items, they’re especially good if you’re looking for something specific. They can reupholster pieces too. And if all that wasn’t enough, they’ve even got an on-site café.

Past Caring (54 Essex Road, N1)

This Essex Road institution has been going for more than 40 years. It’s got a strong mid-century focus, especially British-made pieces; if you like G Plan or Stag Furniture, this is a good place to start. As you can probably guess from the name, Past Caring is the antithesis of pretentious – it’s the sort of junk shop you always dream of stumbling upon. I recently bought a beautiful art-deco mirror here, decorated with enamelled parrots, for £40. They’ve also got a good selection of mid-century ceramics – there are usually very reasonably priced pieces by British manufacturers such as Hornsea, Denby and Portmerion.

2nd October 201426th October 2021

The Colony Grill Room at The Beaumont Hotel

If you want to dine at one of the hottest eating spots in town, then book pronto for the Colony Grill Room at The Beaumont Hotel, the latest offering from Jeremy King and Chris Corbin. When we ate there earlier this week, we spotted Charles Saatchi holding court at one table, whilst Tom Ford and Joan Collins chatted away on another. King and Corbin have ditched their Viennese/Parisian brasserie menu that worked so well at The Woleseley and at their other restaurants: The Delaunay, Colbert and Fischer’s. Instead, the restaurant and hotel have a strong 1920s American art deco vibe, echoed in the menu with offerings such as Pastrami-on-rye, Baked Alaska, Colony Club Salad and the Colony Burger. The restaurant (and the American bar next door) have quite a grown-up, almost masculine feel with lots of dark wood and polished red leather seating but they are also warm and slick with a buzzy atmosphere. As with all of King and Corbin’s ventures, the service is impeccable (we went to another restaurant opening this week and the contrast was stark) and our evening felt like a real treat. Another hit for King and Corbin, for sure.

1st October 201425th October 2021

Pretty Honest by Sali Hughes

Sali Hughes is one of our favourite beauty writers. Our only complaint is that her weekly Guardian column is often quite short and we could read plenty more of her savvy advice. Hallelujah then that she has just written her first book, Pretty Honest: The Straight-Talking Beauty Companion. This is a fairly exhaustive guide to everything from how to apply red lipstick; how to give and receive compliments; how to buy a wig after hair loss; what to do about acne; why the walk of shame should be re-named and what to put in your make up bag in advance of it. In fact, Hughes will be for many readers the ‘talking mirror friend’ she mentions in the book: the friend who wants you to look your best and will encourage you to do so but will also warn you against things that don’t work and might not suit you. The real joy of this book is that her advice is often opinionated but always feels sisterly rather than judgemental. She also communicates her passion for beauty, rhapsodising over the faces of everyone from Elizabeth Taylor to Zadie Smith. In short, Pretty Honest will be enjoyed by everyone from make up addicts to those of us who can barely be bothered with tinted moisturiser.

1st October 201431st August 2022

Textiles & Cushions by Luke Edward Hall

We get a huge kick from discovering new textile designers and we immediately fell in love with Luke Edward Hall’s tigers, which remind us in a very good way of the iconic zebra wallpaper at Gino’s restaurant in New York (which closed, alas, in 2010). The fabric, which you can buy either by the metre or as ready made cushions, comes in various different colour-ways, all of which are lovely (the red is a classic, but we are also mightily tempted by the forest green/pink version). Hall also sells very pretty embroidered cushions, designed by himself and handmade in the UK. They come in gorgeously coloured linens with contrasting silk trims and the embroidered motifs, which include a palm tree, a piece of coral (as below), an octopus, an ionic column and a Greek vase – are inspired by both nature and the classical world. We love.

24th September 201420th October 2014

Women in Clothes: Why We Wear What We Wear

The writer Sheila Heti wanted to find a book that would tell her what women who dress well think about their clothes. She realised “I couldn’t find any book like that so we had to go make that book” and the result is Women in Clothes, a collaboration between her, the writer Heidi Julavits and the illustrator and writer Leanne Shapton. Between them, these three editors interviewed over 639 women including Cindy Sherman, Lena Dunham and Molly Ringwald about their relationship with clothes.

Women in Clothes is a far cry from a coffee table book simply about how to dress beautifully: among the most interesting conversations in the book is one with a Bangladeshi factory worker who survived the Rana Plaza collapse.

On a more light-hearted note, there are pictures of different women’s collections, of Peter Pan-collared shirts, or nail varnishes, or bras. Women in Clothes ultimately feeds on our curiosity about each other’s clothing choices, bodies and self-esteem in a book that is part a snoop into other women’s wardrobes, part a sociological study and part a work of art.

18th September 201426th October 2021

Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty More

There is perhaps no greater food porn than the salad counter pre-lunchtime at any one of Ottolenghi’s four branches. And it’s fair to say that Yotam Ottolenghi has pretty much transformed how we eat since his first book was published six years ago, a couple of years after he started his vegetarian column for The Guardian. Now one restaurant (the always amazing Nopi) and three cookbooks later, he is still as inventive as ever. His latest book, Plenty More, is the follow up to 2010’s Plenty. It’s another vegetarian odyssey – although don’t let that put you off because, as with all their food, there is nothing dull about what the Ottolenghi team dream up in their Camden test kitchen. More than ever, the influences in this latest book are thoroughly international from the Far East to India and beyond. But it’s the consistent knack of giving simple things such zingy flavours that makes this book quite addictive to cook from. For example a Waldorf salad is transformed with toasted cobnuts and sour cherries; a refreshing pomelo salad is so much more than its component parts with the addition of some grilled prawns (yes this is a vegetarian book but the author isn’t above dropping in some carnivorous tips). Our favourite recipe so far is for a roasted red onion salad with a walnut salsa, which is destined to become one of our very favourite salads with its incredibly piquant, chilli-infused dressing.