Monthly Archives: November 2018

Raise your glasses: Michael Rowan finds an ……… Unexpected item in the bagging area

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As someone who recalls those student parties through a prism of cheap boxed wine, ‘When in Rome,’ the UK’s first premium ‘bag in a box’ wine company certainly have their work cut out, trying to convince me to relinquish my cherished bottle of wine and rethink the concept of wine in a box.

Their eco credentials are certainly impressive; recyclable cardboard rather than glass bottles, economic storage in the fridge, and a smaller carbon footprint than their glass competitors.

Each box contains the equivalent of three bottles which seems more like magic than science to me, given the size of the box.

Whilst I can shamefacedly admit to a misspent youth as a student, my wife rarely drinks alcohol. To open a bottle, I have to commit to drinking it over two sittings, or use up what’s left in cooking. (First world problems I know)

 

In the box, the wine remains as fresh as when first opened for up to 6 to 8 weeks. I can now have just one glass with supper and no pressure to drink more, ‘so as not to waste it.’

Being sold on the packaging is all very well, but what about the wine itself?

The wine we are here to taste is Grillo from Sicilly and where better to taste it than in a Sicilian Restaurant in the heart of London’s West End, where Enzo Oliveri, the chef and owner of ‘Tasting Sicily, Enzo’s  Kitchen’, created delicious food to show off the versatility of Grillo.

The Grillo Grape more usually associated with Masala wine but here presented to great effect as fresh, crisp and dry, easily cutting through Olive tapenade, Arancini and roasted and salted vegetables.

On the tongue Kumquat, lemon grass, wild flowers that speak of spring and early summer and yet somehow perfect in winter.

I can see this as a great addition to picnics, trips to the beach or boating on the river and those Christmas parties when you don’t know how many guests to expect.

The Grillo retails at £25.99 (one box is the equivalent of 3 bottles)

Whilst enjoying the Grillo it would have been rude not to taste the red, Nero D’Avola, which is the perfect accompaniment to pasta in tomato sauce, so I for one will be looking out for both.

Available at Waitrose, Harvey Nicholls and some independent wine merchants.

When in Rome can be contacted at www.wheninromewine.co.uk

Enzo’s kitchen can be contacted at Info@tastingscicily.returant

 

 

 

 

 

Soundasleep  -Smart Phones, Smart TVs and now … a Smart Pillow by Dr K Thompson

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As a child I used to dream of having a TV in my bedroom. Just a small black-and-white one would have been the ultimate luxury. (Yes I am that old, I’m afraid – and life was a little tougher in those days).

But how things have moved on?

I have just had the pleasure of road-testing the Soundasleep. It looks, and feels, like a simple, rather attractive, white pillow, but, hidden beneath the soft quilting is a mini-heaven for anyone who dreams of duvet days on a regular basis.

A micro USB charging port with power switch are hidden in a secret zip pocket. Once charged and switched on, the pillow mutates into an entertainment system AND phone, and more. The pillow will remain charged for around 5 to 7 day – depending on how long you can bear to turn off the Soundasleep features and grab some sleep.

Having paired the blue-tooth with either your phone or other audio device, you can press the ‘On’ button, hidden in the top corner of your pillow and listen to music through the inbuilt speaker, either directly from your device, or Spotify for example. You can set the music so it is loud enough for you to hear, but won’t disturb your partner – unless of course you want to ramp up the volume so you can both share. Insomnia will never be a burden again, as you hum along to dance music (not too loud, remember), learn a language, or listen to that ‘How to stop smoking’ hypnosis track someone once bought you for Christmas.

But you can do so much more than listen to music or audio tracks.

Imagine just waking up in your bed when your phone goes. Oh damn, you remember it is Monday morning and you should be in an important meeting. That call will be your boss. No need to panic, jump out of bed or search for your phone – just press the ‘on’ button in your pillow, roll over and talk to your boss from your bed – thank you Soundasleep.

If this isn’t enough, there’s a free Soundasleep App available from Google Play or Apple Store.  It has numerous useful features including a sleep tracker, smart alarm and snore management function, plus a range of sounds and music to fall asleep to. You can also use it to monitor the impact of alcohol, caffeine, exercise and stress on your sleeping patterns. The pillow is also compatible with other apps, such as Calm and Headspace.

AND, as if all this were not enough, it supports Amazon Alexa – you really won’t need to ever leave your bed again.

 

Available from https://soundasleeppillow.co.uk/ at just £50 – the perfect Christmas present for the person who has everything.

 

 

By Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co,uk

FROST’S FOODIE FAVOURITE – BIG EASY

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A taste of the Deep South and a damn good night!

Big Easy is a favourite across the London foodie scene. Good, honest grub and a relaxed atmosphere to match, these Bar B.Q houses and Crabshacks don’t disappoint and with three spots throughout London, you’re never too far away from a Big Easy style, belly busting feast.

Last month, we were invited to try out the renovated Kings Road hut – the home of the original Big Easy restaurant – and it didn’t disappoint.

Authentic, southern décor and melt in the mouth meats, there’s nothing not to love. We opted for the Bar B.Q Blowout for Two which basically means we got to try a bit of everything! All of the meats are cooked the traditional way – low and slow –  over wood. Included on this plate of perfection was Baby Back Ribs, Bar.B.Q Chicken, Chips, Pulled Pork, Cornbread Muffin, Coleslaw & Bar.B.Q Beans and Texas Hot Links Sausage. All for just £22.50 per person!

If you fancy having a food focus as opposed to a little bit of everything, ribs are an absolute highlight at Big Easy and the team take their rib rubs and sauces seriously. “Wet“ ribs are dry rubbed and sauced throughout their entire cook and the “dry ribs” are rubbed and cooked and are just sans sauce. On these, the rub and smoke work their magic to create a “bark” ensuring a crispy exterior with a succulent interior.

Happy hours and live bands make an appearance on the daily, as do fantastic foodie specials from bottomless fajitas (£20pp every Wednesday) to the Monday classic of the ‘Big Pig Gig’, offering diners unlimited Bar B.Q and a 2 pint stein of Big Easy Brew (£20pp).

To book a table at Big Easy Kings Road, visit the Big Easy website.

Christmas Ideas For Book Lovers

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Perfect Books For Christmas. 

A brilliant book of poetry from the end of a relationship, all the way to the start. Like reading an open wound, but fun. 

Running Upon The Wires is Kate Tempest’s first book of free-standing poetry since the acclaimed Hold Your Own. In a beautifully varied series of formal poems, spoken songs, fragments, vignettes and ballads, Tempest charts the heartbreak at the end of one relationship and the joy at the beginning of a new love; but also tells us what happens in between, when the heart is pulled both ways at once.

Running Upon The Wires is, in a sense, a departure from her previous work, and unashamedly personal and intimate in its address – but will also confirm Tempest’s role as one of our most important poetic truth–tellers: it will be no surprise to readers to discover that she’s no less a direct and unflinching observer of matters of the heart than she is of social and political change. Running Upon The Wires is a heartbreaking, moving and joyous book about love, in its endings and in its beginnings.

Available here.

A fast-paced thriller that never lets you go.

Give me Your hand By Megan Abbott.

You told each other everything. Then she told you too much.

Kit has risen to the top of her profession and is on the brink of achieving everything she wanted. She hasn’t let anything stop her.

But now someone else is standing in her way – Diane. Best friends at seventeen, their shared ambition made them inseparable. Until the day Diane told Kit her secret – the worst thing she’d ever done, the worst thing Kit could imagine – and it blew their friendship apart.

Kit is still the only person who knows what Diane did. And now Diane knows something about Kit that could destroy everything she’s worked so hard for.

How far would Kit go, to make the hard work, the sacrifice, worth it in the end? What wouldn’t she give up? Diane thinks Kit is just like her. Maybe she’s right. Ambition: it’s in the blood . . .

Available here.

I really loved this book. Sarah Manguso has a way of articulating life’s great truths. I particularly loved the bits on motherhood. 

Sarah Manguso kept a meticulous diary for twenty-five years. ‘I wanted to end each day with a record of everything that had ever happened,’ she explains. But this simple statement conceals a terror that she might miss out something important. Maintaining that diary became a daily attempt to remember every detail, to stop the passage of time.

Then Manguso became pregnant and had a child, and these two events slowly and irrevocably changed her relationship to her life and also to her diary.

In this moving memoir Sarah Manguso confesses her life long struggle to let go. Ongoingness is a beautiful, daring and honest and shifting work that grapples with writing and motherhood.

Available here.

A fascinating and well-written book on the law. Impossible to put down. 

“I’m a barrister, a job which requires the skills of a social worker, relationship counsellor, arm-twister, hostage negotiator, named driver, bus fare-provider, accountant, suicide watchman, coffee-supplier, surrogate parent and, on one memorable occasion, whatever the official term is for someone tasked with breaking the news to a prisoner that his girlfriend has been diagnosed with gonorrhoea.”

Welcome to the world of the Secret Barrister. These are the stories of life inside the courtroom. They are sometimes funny, often moving and ultimately life-changing.

How can you defend a child-abuser you suspect to be guilty? What do you say to someone sentenced to ten years who you believe to be innocent? What is the law and why do we need it?

And why do they wear those stupid wigs?

From the criminals to the lawyers, the victims, witnesses and officers of the law, here is the best and worst of humanity, all struggling within a broken system which would never be off the front pages if the public knew what it was really like.

Both a searing first-hand account of the human cost of the criminal justice system, and a guide to how we got into this mess, The Secret Barrister wants to show you what it’s really like and why it really matters.

Available here.

Searingly honest. This book is certainly one of the bravest and most personal ever written. Adam Kay has a huge talent for writing and comedy. It is not for the faint hearted, nor for anyone pregnant or thinking of having children! I almost threw up or fainted a few times reading it. Mostly as it reminded me of my C section. This book is a best seller and it is easy to see why.

Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you.

Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn’t – about life on and off the hospital ward.

As seen on ITV’s Zoe Ball Book Club.

This edition includes extra diary entries and a new afterword by the author.

Available here.

Timely, well-written and full of great lines. I recommend sitting down and reading in one sitting as I did. Endlessly engaging and very witty. 

Kathy is a writer. Kathy is getting married. It’s the summer of 2017 and the whole world is falling apart.

From a Tuscan hotel for the super-rich to a Brexit-paralysed UK, Kathy spends the first summer of her 40s trying to adjust to making a lifelong commitment just as Trump is tweeting the world into nuclear war. But it’s not only Kathy who’s changing. Political, social and natural landscapes are all in peril. Fascism is on the rise, truth is dead, the planet is hotting up. Is it really worth learning to love when the end of the world is nigh? And how do you make art, let alone a life, when one rogue tweet could end it all.

Olivia Laing radically rewires the novel in a brilliant, funny and emphatically raw account of love in the apocalypse. A Goodbye to Berlin for the 21st century, Crudo charts in real time what it was like to live and love in the horrifying summer of 2017, from the perspective of a commitment-phobic peripatetic artist who may or may not be Kathy Acker . . .

Available here.

Another book from the brilliant Sarah Manguso. This one has been defaced by one of my children with crayon. Apologies for that. Manguso says “Think of this as a short book composed entirely of what I hoped would be a long book’s quotable passages.” It is precisely that. Smart and gorgeous. A must read. 
300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso is at first glance a group of unrelated aphorisms, but the pieces reveal themselves as a masterful arrangement that steadily gathers power. Manguso’s arguments about writing, desire, ambition, relationships, and failure are pithy, unsentimental, and defiant, and they add up to an unexpected and renegade wisdom literature. Lines you will underline, write in notebooks and read to the person sitting next to you, that will drift back into your mind as you try to get to sleep.

Available here.

This is an original and intelligent book. I found it hard to put down. Marianne Power really draws you in. Honest and brilliantly written. A great book even for those not interested in self help.

Marianne Power was stuck in a rut. Then one day she wondered: could self-help books help her find the elusive perfect life?

She decided to test one book a month for a year, following their advice to the letter. What would happen if she followed the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? Really felt The Power of Now? Could she unearth The Secret to making her dreams come true?

What begins as a clever experiment becomes an achingly poignant story. Because self-help can change your life – but not necessarily for the better . . .

Help Me! is an irresistibly funny and incredibly moving book about a wild and ultimately redemptive journey that will resonate with anyone who’s ever dreamed of finding happiness.

Perfect for readers who enjoyed Everything I know About Love by Dolly Alderton, Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon and Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig.

Available here.

I loved the sisters in this book. It would make the perfect Christmas movie. A wonderful and entertaining Christmas novel to get into the spirit. 

It’s not what’s under the Christmas tree, but who’s around it that matters most.

All Suzanne McBride wants for Christmas is her three daughters happy and at home. But when sisters Posy, Hannah and Beth return to their family home in the Scottish Highlands, old tensions and buried secrets start bubbling to the surface.

Suzanne is determined to create the perfect family Christmas, but the McBrides must all face the past and address some home truths before they can celebrate together . . .

This Christmas indulge in some me-time and enjoy this uplifting and heart-warming story from international bestseller Sarah Morgan. Full of romance, laughter and sisterly drama, The Christmas Sisters is the perfect book to curl up with this festive season.

Available here.

the crossway book, pilgrimage

The Crossway is a brave book with a great story. Guy Stagg was having mental health issues and decided to go on a pilgrimage. He walked more than 5,500 kilometres from Canterbury to Jerusalem. His journey is written brilliantly in these pages and is a riveting read. Perfect for Christmas. A great book.

In 2013 Guy Stagg made a pilgrimage from Canterbury to Jerusalem. Though a non-believer, he began the journey after suffering several years of mental illness, hoping the ritual would heal him. For ten months he hiked alone on ancient paths, crossing ten countries and more than 5,500 kilometres. The Crossway is an account of this extraordinary adventure.

Having left home on New Year’s Day, Stagg climbed over the Alps in midwinter, spent Easter in Rome with a new pope, joined mass protests in Istanbul and survived a terrorist attack in Lebanon. Travelling without support, he had to rely each night on the generosity of strangers, staying with monks and nuns, priests and families. As a result, he gained a unique insight into the lives of contemporary believers and learnt the fascinating stories of the soldiers and saints, missionaries and martyrs who had followed these paths before him.

The Crossway is a book full of wonders, mixing travel and memoir, history and current affairs. At once intimate and epic, it charts the author’s struggle to walk towards recovery, and asks whether religion can still have meaning for those without faith.

Available here.

BEAUTY ESSENTIALS – THE NOVEMBER EDIT

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Despite this bizarrely warm and sunny November we’re having, the crisp air and subtle hints of Christmas are starting to come through so it’s time to make some changes to your regular routine. By this, we mean spoiling the skin, topping up the tan, gearing up the glitter and hydrating the hair.

Check out our November beauty must-haves below and thank us later!

 

Huda Beauty – The Nude Palette

If you haven’t heard about Huda dropping this latest launch, where have you been!? The beauty industry, and our Instagram feeds, are going wild for these 18 pigmented shades and it’s already sold out TWICE since hitting shelves in the UK just two weeks ago. The glitter formulas are absolutely mesmerising and will get you in the party spirit. Our favourite thing about this though, is the sheer number of looks you can create with different combinations. It’s a little more spenny than some but  trust us, it’s totally worth it.

Where can I buy? Feel Unique

How much? £56

Perfect for: EVERYTHING

 

Hairburst Volume and Growth Elixir

Anything that helps protect our locks in this weather gets the thumbs up from us but this fantastic elixir does so much more. Applying to wet hair helps to hugely increase the hair’s volume and also improves the quality and strength of each individual strand. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t see the results after your blow dry and this elixir leaves hair glossier after just one use. It has UV, heat AND pollution protection and the avocado and coconut actives leave the hair smelling super fresh too.

Where can I buy? Superdrug

How much? £23.99

Perfect for: Strengthening, volumizing and perfecting any hair type

 

Balmkind lip treatment

We do love this time of year but cracked, sore lips are not part of the desired winter wardrobe so it’s essential to be protecting your pout. Balmkind is a treatment balm that’s packed with Alpine Rose and Lysine (great for preventing and treating cold sores), as well as liquorice root. This concoction makes for an instantly nourishing and hydrating feel on the lips and to top it all, there is no petroleum in these tubes of goodness, meaning the protective barrier isn’t just artificial. Our favourite thing about Balmkind? It’s available in SPF20 (as well as non SPF) and protects against both UVB and UVA rays

Where can I buy? Balmkind

How much? £13

Perfect for: A super-soft and protected pout

 

Cocoa Brown By Marissa Carter 

An early Christmas miracle for washed out skin. This one hour tan uses accelerating ingredients to help it develop quickly and leaves you with a fast-drying, non-sticky, brown tan, all with Cocoa Brown’s signature Tahitian Gardinia scent. Super easy to apply when using the Cocoa Brown luxury mitt, you’ll have that festive glow in, quite literally, no time as it dries in seconds.

Where can I buy? Superdrug

How much? £5.99

Perfect for: A natural looking top up tan

 

Jolen Cream Bleach

Let’s be honest here, the last thing we want coming through on our flawless party pics is that ‘above lip shadow’. Hair removal can often be a bit too aggressive on the skin which is why bleaching is quite often the right route. Gentle on the skin, a light fragrance, great results and a budget friendly pricetag make it a great choice this season.

Where can I buy? Boots

How much? £4.35

Perfect for: A painless, shadow free top lip

 

 

Dedication for Meditation with Inhere Meditation Pods

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“Meditation is bringing the mind home” – Sagyal Rinpoche The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

City life is not only fast and furious but also taxing on our mind and body’s. It seems like everyday is a rise and grind affair and time we dedicate to ourselves is ever dwindling. Yes, we often give ourselves a break and take time away from work to rest and recuperate and relax away from our homes, but what about those moments in life when we are unable to escape the norm. There has to be some kind of respite that we can achieve in our natural habitat. Major tech companies are starting to focus some attention on how to ensure their staff are functioning at their best by introducing sleep pods, break out rooms etc, but what about everyone else. What do you have at your workplace which allows you to align your thoughts and get back to you? 

Inhere founded by Adiba Osmani and Ghazal Abrishamchi  provides Londoners with meditation studios in Central London. Inhere meaning ‘to exist from within’ became the companies ethos and they wanted to bring a sacred meditation space to utilise within the workplace so they developed their revolutionary Meditation Pod. To debut their pod in an adequate location, they teamed up with luxury co-working space Uncommon and unveiled their creation for customers to use at their leisure. The collaboration was born, as both Inhere and Uncommon are based on the same values. Uncommon’s workplaces are based around health and wellbeing paired with design and technology. The spaces are designed to create an environment which are open and natural using plenty of outdoor light, plants and woods.

The Uncommon spaces showcase the new meditation pod which is a little ‘haven away from London Life’. With a selection of 10, 15, 20 and 30 minute guided meditations, customers can choose from an array of soothing sounds to accompany their relaxation time. The pod is a safe enclosure created from wood and allowing plenty of natural light to flood in to create a bright and airy space. Customers can lounge, sit or lie horizontally on the comfiest meditation chair complete with foot rest and place the headset on to drift into your own relaxation time. Alongside this, Inhere are set to open the most advanced drop-in meditation studio in Central London targeting City workers helping to bust any work related stress. 

To find out more about Inhere visit https://www.inherestudio.com

To book spaces at Uncommon and try out the new meditation pods visit https://www.inherestudio.com 

THE ROMANTIC NOVELISTS’ ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY AWARD WINNERS

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London: 14 November 2018 The Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) is delighted to announce the winners of its annual Industry Awards. The RNA Industry Awards are decided by the membership, with every member eligible to nominate within each category. They recognise and celebrate the many professionals whose work supports and promotes the genre of romantic fiction. Five awards were presented during the RNA’s Winter Party, held in the Library at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in London.

Librarian of the Year

This award recognises the important work that librarians do in supporting the romantic fiction genre, and the Association in particular.  The winner was Sharon Hunt, from Kingswinford Library in Dudley, for being committed to supporting and promoting romantic fiction through library events, reviews, and publicity.

Runner-ups Will Cooban from Bexley Libraries, and Ben Woodfine from Bedford Libraries, were nominated for their continual support and proactivity, and for bringing romantic fiction events to their region.

Romantic Bookseller of the Year
This award recognises booksellers promoting and championing romantic fiction in a positive and proactive way throughout the year.  Store manager Elizabeth Shaw accepted the award on behalf of Waterstones, Truro.  David Headley and team at Goldsboro Books were joint runners-up with Andrew Sellers and the team from Blackwells, Leeds.

Media Star of the Year

Blogger Kaisha Holloway from The Writing Garnet was awarded Media Star of the Year for her great support for authors and her honest, detailed and reflective reviews. This award recognises journalists, bloggers, publicists, TV or radio presenters who have helped raise the profile of romance writing and/or the RNA in a positive way.  Bloggers Anne Cater, from Random Things Through My Letterbox and Rachel Gilbey, from Rachel’s Random Reads, were joint runners-up.

Agent of the Year

For the literary agent who has striven to support, mentor, nurture and promote their authors’ careers, the genre in general and the RNA in particular. This year’s winner, Amanda Preston from LBA, was nominated for her championing of romantic fiction and support for the RNA. With a list featuring several authors in the genre, she was praised for being supporting, unfailingly enthusiastic and never afraid to explore new directions.

Kate Nash, from Kate Nash Literary Agency, and Juliet Pickering, from Blake Friedmann, were joint runners-up.

Publisher of the Year

For the publisher who embraces the genre, mentors writers to produce their best work, and is innovative, creative and visionary in the marketing and promotion of Romantic Fiction on every level.  This year’s award was accepted by Rachel Faulkner-Willcocks, on behalf of Avon Books UK, for their commercial acumen and their energy, expertise and commitment to the genre and its authors.

Runner-ups were Laura McCallen from Canelo, and Emma Capron from Simon & Schuster.

The awards were presented at the RNA’s Winter Party at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, Birdcage Walk, London on 14th November 2018.

Twins by Peter Zelewski: Reviewed by Catherine McGuinness

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We have probably all known twins who seem quite different, who are of mixed gender and may not even appear similar in the way that siblings can do. However, identical twins who by definition are the same gender have fascinated Peter Zelewski since he met identical twins Eric and Tim at school.

He was struck by their confidence and the bond which invisibly united them. To an extent he was jealous that they had each other.

Years later as a professional photographer he remembered this fascination and decided to create a project around the subject.  To this end he sought out identical twins; at random and by using the power of social media.

The result is this engaging book of portraits of twins ranging in age from 2 years old to 57 years old. Each portrait has a short commentary from the twins, which highlights some aspect of their life experience.

There is a moving introduction by one of the pairs of twins, in which they write a brief history of twins through the ages and then comment on Peter’s approach to his work, which for them captures the essence of their union. These photographs, this book is just a glimpse, a step towards an understanding of the unique and special relationship experienced by twins.  It will make you want to find out more.

Twins, produced over four years by award photographer Peter Zelewski is wonderfully enhanced by the quality of this publication. This is a volume to treasure, to gift and to grace bookshelves or coffee tables. And with Christmas on the way…

Twins by Peter Zelewski: Hoxton Mini Press £16.95 (Cloth Hardback) ISBN: 978-1-910566-43-5