Reviewed by Heather O’Connor
Douglas Stuart
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
$32.99
This is the debut novel of a Scottish/American writer that was long-listed for the Booker Prize and has received rave reviews. It is set in Glasgow in the 1980s against the backdrop of mine and factory closures, as grim a story I have read as any set in Scotland and centred on the working class in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. Agnes Bain, a former beauty who expected much of … Read more »
Keith Mundy
Well, here we are in the last month of winter and spring just around the corner and, with it, the start of the gardening year. New growth appears on deciduous plants, perennials wake after their enforced winter hibernation and bulbs pop up everywhere as new life begins.Well, here we are in the last month of winter and spring just around the corner and, with it, the start of the gardening year. New growth appears on deciduous plants, … Read more »
Ingredients:
150 g brown sugar
150 g caster sugar
200 g plain flour
100 g self-raising flour
170 g salted butter, melted, completely cooled
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tspn vanilla bean paste/extract
80 g macadamia nuts chopped (any nuts will do)
250 g chocolate chips (dark, milk or white)
Method:
Line 2-3 trays with baking paper and preheat oven to 180 C.
Combine and mix flours and sugars in a bowl.
Ingredients:
1 tblspn butter
2 tblspn olive oil
1 brown onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
4 pieces of osso bucco (beef shin), seasoned with salt and pepper and lightly floured
1 cup white wine
3 cups chicken stock
800 ml tin crushed or chopped tomato
2 parsley sprigs,
1 bay … Read more »
Keith Mundy
With winter well and truly with us, it is opportune to mention once again the care needed for our birds and bees through these colder months. Apart from supplying a reliable water source for them in a shallow birdbath or dish, another important thing is to provide them with food during winter. Food can be provided by either artificially feeding them with purchased seed and the like or, more naturally, with seed and flowers on plants. Birds have a diverse range of diets – from those … Read more »
Review by Heather O’Connor
Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell
$22.99
I bought this book without any knowledge of it, but who can resist buying a special at Readings in Carlton? Hamnet is a novel inspired by what little is known about Shakespeare’s son, a twin to his sister, Judith, who falls ill unto death with the plague. It is worth reading the whole book for the heart-breaking description of how the plague spread around the world, finally arriving at Stratford-on-Avon. There are traumatic descriptions of how Agnes, Shakespeare’s wife and mother … Read more »
