Toast by Nigel Slater

An interesting book that generated a good discussion even if a lot of it was to compare our mother's skill at cooking and our childhood/school remembered foods - Deadman's leg, tapioca, Angle Delight - butterscotch flavour anyone? The bleakness of his upbringing, the lack of love and the neglect, in many respects, was upsetting. Cindy was unable to make the meeting but emailed the following:

'I was initially frustrated with the structure of the book; the short chapters that all seemed to have the same general composition. Boy finds something that makes him happy, parents find a way to make it less wonderful, boy finds way to triumph over adults. The sexual abuse that he treats in an accepting, cavalier way was shocking. As I read on, though, I found I was most interested in the things about 1970s Britain that are both different and the same as 1970s America. Most of the sweets he talks about are unfamiliar to me. The bare, cold, loveless home he grew up in was horrifying. The fact he came out of it with the will to do anything at all is amazing. I think the structure of the book was suited to a weekly newspaper column; don't know if it was or not. For me the most interesting aspect of the book is the insight into a Britain unfamiliar to me. I don't know how true this impression is, though. In the end, I'm glad I read it. I like Slater's recipes, but until last week, I'd never seen him on TV.   The show was very annoying to watch because they used an hand-held camera and hand-drawn titles which were irritating and contrived. But I've done two of the recipes he demonstrated and they both were VERY enthusiastically received by my family. (Lamb hotpot and stuffed butternut squash) I took all the credit, though.'

Words used to describe it: whimsical, nostalgic, honest, comforting, slight, enjoyable, aggravatingly inaccurate, bland, nostalgic, bleakly honest.
Marks out of 10 between 4 and 8, generally it has scored quite highly for a book club book with 5 votes over 7!

Next Book

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple

Next meeting

Thursday 25th February
at
53 Finlay Street