Friday 29 January 2016



Thursday, 3 December, 1942.

Tonight ate cheese sliced thinly and cooked in margarine with tomato and milk, and pudding made from stale scone and some vile ABC jam sponge cake, soaked in prune juice, mixed with plenty of homemade plum jam and steamed. Jam was beginning to go mouldy.

I think I'd have just toasted the stale scone and donated the prune juice to the war effort. This is my first big fat read of the year and it's compellingly readable. But when I say big fat read ... friend commented this afternoon, 'I've never seen such a huge book.' It's what I call Not a Handbag Book. Then I did some rearranging and bunged it in my handbag, anyway.

7 comments:

Mystica said...

I like that teaser!

mary said...

It's very readable, Mystica - though you do very get exasperated with her sometimes.

Gina said...

Sounds intriguing

Anonymous said...

I have seen this book mentioned on quite a few blogs and am still wondering if it is something I would enjoy reading. If you like it, I think I might, too.

Lucille said...

That's a pretty stomach turning recipe. Is the book fatter than A Place of Great Safety? I'm struggling to prop it up in bed.

mary said...

Oooh, that's a tough one, Lucille. I think A Place of Greater Safety is possibly in the lead! I struggled to keep track of who's who. Was glad I read it but didn't enjoy it as much as Wolf Hall.

She was one of the Mass Observation diarists, Toffeeapple - and featured in a TV drama that I vaguely remember seeing some time ago. I'm finding it much more readable than Few Eggs and No Oranges which I never managed to finish. Even if you want to shake her sometimes over her man problems.

mary said...

Well remembered, Sue!