Authors know everything
In a week in which (until the country disappeared under water, at least) the UK talked of little other than a strangely mature-looking sixteen-year-old darts prodigy...
“Age is not important unless you're a cheese.”
Helen Hayes, actress, the first woman to win the Emmy/ Grammy/ Oscar/ Tony four-fecta and author of My Life in Three Acts.
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Brutto: A (Simple) Florentine Cookbook by Russell Norman. Ebury Press £32
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While waiting for the first books of 2024 to be brought up from the mine, what better for this month of denial and sit-ups than a life-affirming cookbook, a reminder that the pleasures of the table are close at hand, should you change your mind about going without. And also, unintentionally, that one should not squander too many opportunities to indulge. Russell Norman, who sadly and suddenly died last November at 57, was a charming legend of London restaurants and an evangelist for unpretentious Italian food. A sworn enemy of over-priced pomposity in eating out, he moved to Italy for a year in order to “learn to cook like a 90-year-old Venetian granny” for his previous book ( Venice: Four Seasons of Home Cooking, Fig Tree, £26). Now with Brutto comes your chance to produce happiness at the stove like a senior Florentine citizen, every single day. Buy these books
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The Strong Words Hot List
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Urgently seeking some tough early year motivational messaging? Here are five recent strivings against adversity that Strong Words found effective.
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5 I Am An Island by Tamsin Calidas (2020) Black Swan, £9.99
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Having lost her affection for London, the author and her husband switch to a croft in the Hebridean wilderness in search of an exciting fresh start. “Bugger off”, say the locals, and her husband does after an awkward affair, leaving Tamsin to undertake the quest for a fulfilling new life – and enjoy all that raw island hospitality – alone. Buy this book
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4 Dirt by Bill Buford (2020) Vintage, £9.99
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Also initially received at lower than room temperature by the locals was American writer Buford, who fetched up in Lyon eager to labour in the kitchens of what for many are the world's finest restaurants. Already an accomplished cook, his initial attempts to find work stoveside were greeted with Gallic disbelief. Five years later, he was culinarily much the wiser. Buy this book
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3 Do No Harm by Henry Marsh (2014) W&N, £9.99
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Life's pettier concerns have a habit of making themselves scarce on the brain surgeon's operating table, leaving the man with the knife – the great, great Henry Marsh – to ruminate on the business of being alive, his own multiple flaws, and the "cemetery within" that comes as standard with all neurosurgeons. Buy this book
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2 Tanqueray by Brandon Stanton and Stephanie Johnson (2022) Macmillan, £12.99 (Kindle)
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Stephanie Johnson's route away from the tougher side of the street came as a "burlesque" dancer in the not un-gritty Manhattan of the sixties and seventies. In 2019, at 78, she crossed paths with author Stanton and his Humans of New York project, where her spectacular account of life among people of the night made her a late-stage internet phenomenon. Buy this book
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1 The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (2018) Penguin, £10.99
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It's hard to imagine there's a person alive who hasn't yet read this extraordinary story (couple lose house and all possessions to no-good business partner just as husband receives terminal diagnosis. Out of options, they start walking). So it may be time for everyone to go round again. Buy this book
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A tremendously exciting development to help you get stuck into the best reading material.
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In an outstanding technological leap forward, by my standards at least, you are now able to purchase the books recommended here direct from your electronic device, and lend a helping hand to Strong Words in the process.
Clicking on the link after each recommendation will initiate a process by which you can satisfy your book-buying urge at high speed, and automatically divert a tiny percentage of the purchase price toward the upkeep of Strong Words, in order that I can keep recommending more books.
It's the circle of life!
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A request...
Dear Ed, a happy new year to all at Strong Words, and thanks for picking out so many great books I would have otherwise have missed in '23 (especially Kick the Latch and Shakespeare Was A Woman). But a small and polite request – could we please have some poetry? Deborah P. (subscriber)
A happy new year to you too Deborah, and I'd love to accommodate, but I've never understood poetry. And it's not just me. A poetry editor of my acquaintance once ran into one of the poets she'd included in an anthology. Thanks for including my poem, was the gist of her comment, but you put it in the wrong section. The editor had placed it among the inspirational or uplifting verse, thinking that's where it belonged, according to her interpretation of it. Actually, said the poet, the poem was about the worst day of her life. So if even the experts can't tell the front from the back, what chance do civilians like me stand? Ed.
If you'd care to weigh in on the poetry debate or send some recommendations (with a strong case for their inclusion), info@strong-words.co.uk awaits your petition.
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Thanks for all your generous Christmas mail. One communiqué particularly stood out...
Hello Strong Words from Josef. Do you know where I can make a contact with the biggest supermodel Linda Evangelista, star of the new photo album book of pictures with photogragher (sic) Meisel, Stephen? I believe you are a magazine of books and I urgently need to make direct representation to her that her beauty is still very strong. Josef (not a subscriber)
If anyone would like to help Josef in his quest, or alternately alert Linda Evangelista of an "admirer" on the radar, start by sending sightings to info@strong-words.co.uk.
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A masterclass in branding...Of the many ways devised by crafty professionals to separate companies from their revenue, turning product branding into a complicated science is one of the cheekier. So if you're about to make a large bank transfer in exchange for "consultancy" on fonts, colour palettes and brand values, don't press send just yet. There may be a simpler solution. First, look at how Coco Chanel did it. This is Ernest Beaux, former perfumer to the Tsars, who by 1920 had fled Russia, there being less demand for his talents as a fragrance developer post-revolution. “Mademoiselle Chanel, who had a flourishing fashion house, asked me to create a perfume for her. I showed her a series containing numbers 1 to 5 and 20 to 24. She selected a few, including No. 5. ‘What shall we call this scent?’ I asked her. Mademoiselle Chanel answered: ‘I will be presenting the collection on the fifth day of the fifth month, in May. So we’ll leave this perfume with the number it already has. Five is its lucky number.’” Ask anyone in France and they'll tell you that every thirty seconds someone in the world is buying a bottle of Chanel No. 5. (This is from A History of Women in 101 Objects, by Annabelle Hirsch. Canongate, £25, a book that has made – and will be making – frequent visits to Strong Words, both magazine and newsletter). Buy this book
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How to subscribe to Strong Words
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Non-subscribers – are you ready to join the movement? To make 2024 the year of reading more stylishly than ever before, please approach the window here. The subscription process is entirely painless, and leads to a lovely glossy magazine full of entertaining new book recommendations appearing inside your home every other month. Issue 49 is just over a month away!
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Got a story you’d like to share? Or a question that's bothering you? Send your gossip, tips, literary sightings and intel to info@strong-words.co.uk
For all advertising enquiries info@strong-words.co.ukMost importantly of all, please share this email with anyone you think might like a weekly shot of lively book recommendations. Strong Words needs readers, so use this link to pass it on. Or to sign up to receive the newsletter weekly, go to the website at www.strong-words.co.uk.
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