Book review: Fighting to Choose: The Abortion Rights Struggle in New Zealand by Alison McCulloch

This book is in bookshops now.

My copy of Alison McCulloch’s Fighting to Choose: the Abortion Rights Struggle in New Zealand is now very much in second hand condition. The condition is the result of the numerous times I was compelled to throw it across in the room in disgust at the behaviour of anti-abortionists and the asinine comments, very Akin-like in nature, from politicians responsible for creating and condoning our “progressive” nation’s restrictive abortion laws. My apologies, I don’t usually treat books this way. Despite the abuse that the book suffered, I have a much better understanding of how the abortion rights struggle has played out in the past and hope for how it might be shaped in future.

Alison McCulloch undertook a mammoth task in poring over records stored in rarely accessed collections, trawling the memoirs of former politicians, talking to key activists, and attempting to interview those who weren’t so keen to recount their involvement. All this was necessary to document the political environment at the time New Zealand politicians produced a set of laws that aimed to restrict abortion, as well as the activities of pro-choice and anti-abortion advocates both leading up to and after the laws were enacted.

Following the 1977 Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act (and its 1978 amendment), Alison details the battle that has been waged mostly behind the scenes, with the majority of people blissfully unaware, as abortion is considered easy to access here in New Zealand. Women are generally grateful to be able to access abortion services at all (in the parts of the country that they can). It’s only after reading Fighting to Choose that I understand how many workarounds have been developed to allow our abortion services to function the way that they do, and I’m still a bit dubious as to how recent court case found in favour of the law being interpreted as it should be (with 98% of abortions granted under mental health grounds).

The detail of the tactics and history of both sides of the fight over our ambiguous abortion laws is what makes this book so valuable. While the answers on how to proceed aren’t supplied, it’s easy to see a few mistakes made in the past that threaten to repeat themselves and this encourages a more strategic look at how one might engage with abortion law reform. As someone who is already involved in pro-choice activism, I swung wildly from wanting to swallow my anger at politicians’ unwillingness to touch the abortion issue and join the Labour party, to fashioning protest signs and re-invigorating the snark-filled postering efforts that the more radical pro-choice activists were well known for (photographs included in the book), to starting a fundraising drive for the necessary funds to schmooze some abortion law reform out of our democratic system.

Alongside learning about the pro-choice movement’s past, I was pretty damn impressed at the organising that the anti-abortion advocates employed in the lead up to the abortion law and since, backed by well resourced religious allies still now as they were then. While I think the anti-abortion movement is well weakened in the present day as New Zealanders have generally become more secular and progressive, the unwillingness of politicians to touch the issue of abortion can be at least partly credited to the anti-abortion campaigners strong work in the 1970s. It is imperative that they are not underestimated; I was shocked to read of the harassment that politicians who dared move to reform abortion law had faced even in the last 20 years.

This book is an important part of understanding the context and content of the current abortion law and the tactics that have been tried both successfully and unsuccessfully by both sides to manipulate our lawmakers right up to the present day. For pro-choice activists, reading this book should be mandatory in order to work out how best to tackle the next part of the struggle for reproductive autonomy. It’s certainly motivated musing on my behalf. Or if that’s not what you’re into, Fighting to Choose is an interesting look at a pretty fierce battle in our small nation’s recent political history, with some feisty characters at the forefront.

I’d like to thank Alison for her work documenting this important part of New Zealand’s history and for all those who have gone before me in advocating for a law that would truly give a woman the right to choose what happens with her own body. I’m looking forward to seeing some of you back out marching, especially if you do form that ‘Grannies for Abortion’ group.

Reviewed by Nikki Whyte

Fighting to Choose: The Abortion Rights Struggle in New Zealand
by Alison McCulloch
Published by Victoria University Press
ISBN 9780864738868

Email digest: Wed 22 May 2013

This is a digest of our Twitter feed that we email out most Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Sign up here for free if you’d like it emailed to you.

Book News
Dunedin poet, Sue Wootton, takes second prize (shared) in International Prize for Poetry

Iain Banks posts a new letter to his fans, updating them on his chemotherapy plans & fan letters to other authors

Qantas teamed up with Hachette Australia to make a collection of paperbacks that are the perfect length for their key routes. That’s pretty great! [No link]

An update on the case of the NZSA 

Tools for bookshops
A great blog post for all retailers about the art of listening

Book Reviews
Sarah Vaughan is not my Mother by MaryJane Thomson 

Nga Tau ki Muri: Our Future by Ans Westra 

From around the internet
The Bookstore Strikes Back – Great words from Ann Patchett! 

The best advice Maya Angelou ever received  

Ever wondered what it’s like to experience a poetry workshop? Here’s your chance to be a fly on the wall. 

Jacqueline Wilson has revealed the cover of her next book, DIAMOND, coming out in October! 

Teenage Tweetland: promoting YA books through social media 

Opportunities
Text Publishing are looking for an editor to join their team

Book Review: Sarah Vaughan is not my Mother by MaryJane Thomson

This is in bookshops now.

The interesting thing about reading memoir, for a seasoned fiction reader, is that memoir (being life) refuses to bow to any of the rules of fiction with which we are so unconsciously familiar. In fiction, if a character has an interesting and significant conversation with, say, a taxi driver, the taxi driver will undoubtedly turn up again later in the story. In memoir though, things happen in a random series of individual events, and any attempt at unravelling or predicting what will happen next is thwarted by the untidiness of life.

In MaryJane Thomson’s Sarah Vaughan is not my Mother, this disconnect is even more evident as the main character, MaryJane herself, is in the throes of psycho-affective disorder, has been sectioned under the mental health act, and is incarcerated in a mental health facility. MaryJane spends her days surviving the monotony of the ward with nicotine and black coffee, and creating artworks on the floor of her bedroom with cold tea, fruit and Coke bottles. To shake off her dependency on illegal drugs, she is numbed instead by prescription medication which, despite its many undesirable side effects, seems to do little to quiet the voice in her head.

The voice in MaryJane’s head is one of the most interesting characters in the book, and although it’s hard to know how accurate her depiction of this might be, it is an interesting and compelling account of what it might be like to live with this type of illness. Her voice variously tells her she is the incarnation of Jesus, has been violently assaulted by pretty much every member of her family and all her friends, and that she is actually black, the natural daughter of music legends Jimi Hendrix and Sarah Vaughan, but that she was “bleached” at birth to disguise her origins.

MaryJane sometimes obeys the voice, sometimes believes it but is hesitant to act on what it tells her to do, and sometimes outright disbelieves it, and tells it so. Her reaction to the voice at any given point is a good indicator of her mental state throughout the book – the more mistrustful she is of the voice, the closer she seems to be to stable mental health.

The dialogue in the book is often quite stilted and unnatural, but it’s hard to tell whether this is the result of a writer unfamiliar with writing dialogue, or a deliberate choice to heighten the surreal nature of MaryJane’s situation. Whichever it was, I found it quite distracting, and more liberal use of contractions (e.g. “I’ve…” rather than “I have…”) and more attention to the natural rhythms of the dialogue would have increased the book’s readability.

The other thing I found unusual about the book was the portion of her story that MaryJane has chosen to tell. Rather than describe her first descent into mental ill-health, or her climb out of it towards recovery, this memoir describes a rather arbitrary section in the middle. Only the author’s note gives us any contextual information about MaryJane, and the epilogue feels a bit tacked on the end. The book itself lacks any sort of character arc, or definite beginning, middle and end, although this is another peculiarity of memoir, as opposed to fiction.

MaryJane’s story is compelling, and provides an honest but sympathetic portrayal of what it is like to be sectioned under the mental health act, suffering from a psychiatric disorder. I would particularly recommend this book to anyone who has a friend or family member going through any sort of struggle with mental ill health, or anyone who has worked in or is interested in working in the mental health sector.

Reviewed by Renée Boyer-Willisson

Sarah Vaughan is not my Mother: A Memoir of Madness 
by MaryJane Thomson
Published by Awa Press
ISBN 9781877551802 (paperback)
ISBN 9781877551819 (e-book)

Email digest: Tuesday 21 May 2013

This is a digest of our Twitter feed that we email out most Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Sign up here for free if you’d like it emailed to you.

Events
We’ve got lots of great book events on the calendar at the moment 

Book News
The publisher of Otago University Press Wendy Harrex retired this month after 20 years in the role 

Kevin Jones, former Manager of PDL dies

NZSA 2013 Youth Mentorships Announced 

Book review
A Forager’s Treasury by Johanna Knox 

From around the internet
This is an excellent explanation of why you should read to your children.

Bookman Beattie on Radio Live talking about His Own Steam

‘Please don’t abandon the book. There is nothing more beautiful in our material world than the book.’ — Patti Smith 

Book review: A Forager’s Treasury by Johanna Knox

This book is in stores now.

It doesn’t happen often enough; you come across a book that so delights and changes the way you look at the world around you; Johanna Knox’s A Forager’s Treasury definitely enchants.

I’m a plant-lover with an extensive kitchen garden, but I’ve learnt so much in reading this book. I now look at roadside verges and weedy lawns in a completely new way. I see food everywhere. Not many people get excited by the sight of onion weed. Now I can’t wait for those little white bonnets to pop up ready for use in weed pakoras or parmesan crisps. And I’m compiling a long list of all the things I’m going to do with kawakawa, from spice blends and flavouring pannacotta to perfumes and liqueurs.

The writing is delightful, full of warmth and inspiring detail. I love the stories of her less-than-successes as much as her successes. The wide-eyed aspirations of a young girl who buried a plastic bag of apples in the garden so she could surprise her family mid-winter with perfectly preserved produce. And it’s the telling details of her wide experience that I really appreciate.

“The enormous, floppy, fuzzy leaves of tree mallows are known as an emergency toilet paper substitute, but I can say from experimentation that they have a nasty, squeaky, water-repellent feel, like 1970’s velour, and ‘emergency’ is the operative word.” (p92)

The book provides a very practical framework to make your foraging dreams a reality. There is a lovely introduction to the foraging ethos and rules of engagement. A wide variety of foragable treasures available in New Zealand are described beautifully with pretty little illustrations. However, this is not an identification guide. You will need to take another book on your missions–excellent examples are listed in the Resources.

This is a book to keep safe at home to inspire, and then hurry back to with your goodies. Because, the real diamond in this book, is the artful prescription for using your foraged finds. I love the way Knox has approached the recipe section. Instead of a list of specific ingredients combined in staid ways, A Forager’s Treasury opens up the world of materials to work with and then provides the formulas to create your own culinary, medicinal, fragrant and even colour magic.

Solid methods of preserving your bounty are presented, and a wonderful selection of recipes give you the foundation necessary to embrace experimentation. ‘The Art of the Wild Salad’ is a charming example covering the mixing and matching of flavours, and then gives a table of taste groups so you can blend something incredible.

Like all good books these days, there is a website to go with it. This is a great way for the author to update any areas of the book that may have been lacking. Printable indexes by plant name and recipe have been included. The photo ID gallery is a really good add-on with very clear images. I look forward to seeing what else will appear at http://foragerstreasurygallery.blogspot.co.nz

Johanna Knox’s A Forager’s Treasury is a gem of a book. Beautifully illustrated, delightfully written and full of wonderful information that will be sitting pride of place on my bookshelf for a very long time.

Reviewed by Anna Butterfield www.loveplantlife.com

A Forager’s Treasury
by Johanna Knox
Published by Allen & Unwin
ISBN 9781877505164

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Email digest: Monday 20 May 2013

This is a digest of our Twitter feed that we email out most Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Sign up here for free if you’d like it emailed to you.

Book events
Paula Green launches her new poetry collection at Vic Books tomorrow night – all welcome 

Book news
New Zealand’s extinct moa subject of award-winning popular science book

Budget missed an opportunity – Booksellers NZ

Auckland Writers & Readers Festival
Twitter says, “Kudos to Unity Books and The Women’s Bookshop for their superb bookstall. Indie booksellers – they try harder, do better”.

An Hour With Jackie Kay 

Sylvie Simmons – Mr Cohen Revealed

Lauraine Jacobs – Everlasting Feast 

From around the internet
My happy place: Graham Beattie, blogger 

The Return of Fleur Adcock 

Book review
The Nature of Ash by Mandy Hager

Opportunities
Win! With the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards 

An Hour With Jackie Kay at #AWRF

Auckland Writers and Readers Festival, Saturday 18 May, 11.30am

Scottish poet, fiction writer and memoirist, Jackie Kay is one of my favourite writers, so I was beside myself with excitement about hearing her read and speak. When you have loved any public figure for a long time, there is always the fear the the ‘real life’ experience won’t meet your (no doubt unreasonably high) expectations, but this was not the case for Jackie Kay. She was wonderful and this was my favourite session. She has a strong stage presence and shines with humour, wisdom, optimism. It’s an infectious brew!

The session was expertly hosted by New Zealand writer Stephanie Johnson who asked intelligent questions of Jackie Kay.

Early in the session, Jackie read her poem ‘Fiere’ (pronounced ‘Fairy’ but with a rolled scottish ‘R’) from the book of same name, a poem about enduring female friendship. Her broad Scottish accent is delightful and that, combined with the poem’s musicality, was stunning.

See her read it here – trust me, it’s worth a watch!

When she finished there was a collective sigh of satisfaction from the audience and Jackie said, “I love the wee moans people give at poetry readings. We poets live for those wee moans.”

Jackie Kay spoke of her New Zealand connection – her (adoptive) parents met in Christchurch at the Coffee Pot Cafe. This is Jackie’s first visit to New Zealand but she feels like it is something of ‘a pilgrimage of my parent’s love’ and she was headed to Christchurch after the festival to visit some of those key sites in her parents history. She talked about a plastic ‘Maori’ doll she had as a child, sent over from her grandmother who was still in New Zealand. “I loved that doll. I called her Ngaire. One day, though, a girl came up to me on the street and said to me: ‘Just because you’re a darkie, doesnae mean you’ve got to have a darkie doll.’

Jackie Kay has a Nigerian birth father and was adopted by a white Scottish couple, so grew up black in a very white community. Incidents of casual racism peppered her childhood and even now she is often interrogated by fellow Scots about her lineage. Her adoptive father loved jazz and she said she would stare at the covers of his jazz records, at the black faces on the covers and saw them as her “earliest black family: Aunty Ella Fitzgerald, Uncle Duke Ellington.” She spoke at length about the subject of her memoir Red Dust Road – her search for her birth parents, her exploration of Nigeria where her birth father was from and her realisations of the extent to which we are shaped by love more than genetics.

“Identity is fluid. Love is what really matters. People who feel deeply loved have a different aura about them” she said. Her adoptive parents did deeply love and cherish her. When she went to Nigeria she felt “the land was welcoming me, even when my father wasn’t.” Her birth father, a deeply Christian man saw her as “a living emodiment of his past sins.”

She read other poems and excerpts from her short stories, endearingly skipping over the sex scenes “that’s all a bit much for an Auckland writing festival audience at eleven in the morning”. Her fiction writing about old age was very moving, artful writing which raises questions about how we treat old people in our society.

Jackie Kay’s session mirrored the experience of reading her work, one minute you’re laughing until tears roll down your cheeks, next minute the tears are not mirthful but sad. The best wisdom is often framed in humour and Jackie Kay has the uncanny knack to provide both in perfect balance.

After the ‘hour with Jackie Kay’ I took the opportunity to have my own ‘minute with Jackie Kay’. I waited in a very long line for my chance to have a quick exchange with this great author while she signed ‘Red, Cherry Red‘ one of her poetry books for me. I had true fan-girl nerves and as I stood there I wrestled with the dilemma of whether or not to give her the copy of my own poetry book, ‘The Comforter‘.

Although I wanted to, I was also worried it was inappropriate, pushy, over-the-top…but when the moment arrived, I did it, nervously burbling to her “sorry, sorry, probably the last thing you need is more junk to cram into your suitcase”. Jackie said “This is not junk, it’s a gift. Thank you so very much for bringing it for me, it’s wonderful” and smiled at me with a grin so warm I basked in it for the rest of the day. What a gracious and generous writer she is, and a deeply human and humane person.

Written by Helen Lehndorf.

Thank you to Auckland Writers & Readers Festival for providing Helen’s ticket to this event.

Fiere
by Jackie Kay
Published by Picador
ISBN 9780330513371

Red Dust Road
by Jackie Kay
Published by Atlas
ISBN 9781935633341

Red, Cherry Red
by Jackie Kay
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN 9780747589792

The Comforter
by Helen Lehndorf
Published by Seraph Press
ISBN 9780473196073

Book review: The Nature of Ash by Mandy Hager

This book is in bookshops now and is a finalist in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.

The Nature of Ash by NZ author Mandy Hager is a thrilling read; a finalist in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards in the Young Adult category. It tells the story of Ash McCarthy, who is enjoying living in a student hostel. When the police make a visit to the hostel, his life is changed forever. His father has been killed by a bomb that destroyed his workplace.

Ash returns home to Wellington, to his little brother Mikey who has Downs Syndrome. Still trying to understand what has happened, Ash stumbles on several threat letters and a hint that his long-dead mother may in fact be alive. While his world is turning upside-down, the outside world is too; New Zealand is on the brink of war.

Suddenly no-one can be trusted- Ash finds himself fighting to protect the lives of Mikey, himself, and friends Jiao and Travis. Drowning in mystery and lies, Ash must learn the truth, or lose everything. As the urgency of their escape grows, the stakes become higher and higher. Danger laces their mission to survive- and the enemy could be anyone…

The Nature of Ash is a phenomenal book, which deserves the highest praise for its wonderful characters, unique voices and almost-unbearable suspense. With a fast pace that has you racing to reach the end, the tension and thrills of Mandy Hagers’s novel are sure to grip its’ readers.

You will be stunned by the sharp twists; this chilling roller-coaster read will have you on the edge of your seat. I highly recommend The Nature of Ash to older teens – adults, too- this is not a tale you will forget in a hurry.

Reviewed by Tierney.

The Nature of Ash
by Mandy Hager
Published by Random House
ISBN 9781869799038

Sylvie Simmons – Mr Cohen Revealed at #AWRF

Auckland Writers and Readers Festival, 17 May, 5.30pm

Sylvie Simmons – click image for source

Both host Noelle McCarthy and writer Sylvie Simmons looked every inch rock’n'roll for this session, both head to foot clad in black velvet/lace/denim. One of the world’s leading rock journalists, Simmons is the author of a recent biography of Leonard Cohen I’m Your Man  during the writing of which she had access to both the man himself and his archives. (She has also written biographies of Serge Gainsbourg and Neil Young.)

She charmed the audience from the first minute with her honesty, wit and ability to tell a tale well. Clearly this was a session filled with music-nerds and Leonard Cohen-devotees hoping for juicy details and original anecdotes from biographer Simmon’s close proximity with the enigmatic musician, and she delivered both in abundance.

Noelle spoke of how Simmon’s strength as a biographer was the way she cultivated a sense of intimacy between the reader and the subject: “She allows you to meet the artist and to be party to their whole life: their creative process, their family, their public and private faces.” Simmonds described Leonard Cohen as “wise, droll and cool”, a man who was enjoying “a tsunami of love and affection at the end of his life.” Earlier in his career, his home country Canada and the USA were slow to see his genius and he was bigger in (according to Simmond’s) “the darker countries: the UK and Scandanavia.”

Early on, Cohen had a very conflicted relationship to his career. He suffered depression and always questioned his own motives for wanting fame. He said that taking his music on tour in the early days he felt like “a parrot and a pimp” but now he enjoys performing and touring and enjoys the irony of having “full-employment” in his seventies. He said of returning to touring after his long absence: “It was like returning to a beach years after your last visit to see if a sandcastle you’d built was still there.”

Sylvie Simmonds said she was shocked to discover the Cohen still enjoys drugs, including LSD and speed. When she commented on his use of speed, Cohen said “You should hear how slow I am when I’m not on speed.” She described the process of writing a biography of a living subject as being like “writing a murder mystery without a corpse” and enjoys the deep research involved. She said the the haunting quality of Leonard Cohen’s music was due to it being a mixture of ‘the sacred, the profane and the humane” and that Cohen (primarily a poet) saw his songs as “a mixture of prayer”.

This session was thick with wonderful details about Leonard Cohen, real gems, delightful morsels for the Cohen fan. My favourite morsels were:

• Cohen likes McDonald’s ‘Fillet’o'Fish’ burgers, but prefers to get it to take-away so he can eat it at home with a glass of wine
• As a young person, he was told by his family and his family Rabbi that he couldn’t sing
• As a teenager he learned hypnosis and mesmerism, some of the skills of which have been useful in his performance career
• Leonard was given slightly special treatment when he joined the Zen monastery on Mount Baldy: he had his own toilet, and was allowed to have a coffee and a cigarette each morning at 3am before joining the other monks for meditation
• When meditating, he said he always had to work through his ‘Top 40′ sexual memories before he could settle his mind to meditation

There was much more besides, but perhaps the best way to get the low-down on Leonard Cohen is to read Simmons wonderful biography. At the end of the session, an audience member asked Simmons about how she became a rock journalist, she said it was all that she ever wanted to do because of her passion for both music and writing, but “because I appeared not to have a penis, I had to leave the UK for the USA where in Los Angeles I had a shot at it.”

Noelle McCarthy did a great job of hosting the session with energy and intelligent questions and Sylvie Simmons finished the session with a live ukelele version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ showing that not only is she a phenomenal writer, but she can sing with a beautiful high voice which sounded like early (pre-heroin) Marianne Faithful.

Here she is singing the same song at a different event:

Leaving the session with a new version of a classic Cohen song resounding around my head was the perfect way to exit this juicy, funny and riveting session.

Written by Helen Lehndorf.

Thank you to Auckland Writers & Readers Festival for providing Helen’s ticket to this event.

 I’m Your Man
by Sylvie Simmons
Published by Vintage
ISBN 9780099549321

Lauraine Jacobs – Everlasting Feast at #AWRF

Auckland Writers and Readers Festival, Friday 17 May, 4pm

Launched just three weeks ago, Lauraine Jacobs’ new book Everlasting Feast is the best kind of food memoir, one with lush food photography (by Elizabeth Clarkson) and some of her signature recipes. (All the flowers in the book are from Lauraine’s own garden.)

Lauraine Jacobs wrote for Cuisine magazine for many years and now writes for The Listener. In her new book, Lauraine tells colourful stories from her rich career in food and food writing in a way which is both educational and lively.

Lauraine has previously published ten recipe books and so felt with this book it was time to do something a bit different, to bring her love of story-telling together with her passion for food. Through close telling of her own journey with food, Lauraine explores the country’s journey in food since the 1950s. In this session, Lauraine spoke engagingly about both the national and international food scenes with a wry sense of humour and a sharp intelligence.

The book covers Lauraine’s life from a five-year old Brownie and is a very Auckland book, featuring the various places around the city where Lauraine has lived and worked. Lauraine has encountered many notable food writers in her career, especially through her involvement with the International Association of Culinary Professionals, which she first joined, then eventually chaired. Through the Association she met Julia Childs, who she said was a spirited raconteur who would often still be telling stories in the bar at 1am, a woman who truly earned her legendary title and who bought real cooking back to America in an era of Betty Crocker packet foods and tuna casseroles made with cans of Campbell’s soup.

Lauraine spoke passionately about the importance of starting our cooking from fresh, seasonal produce. In her book she writes in depth about her favourite ingredients: lemons, herbs, butter and salt.

She said her favourite quick meal is fresh fish with salad, which is a lovely fusion of those four ingredients – the lemon and butter enliven the fish, the salad is bought to life with lemon, herbs and salt. Lauraine somewhat controversially declared that ‘most New Zealand butter is rancid on the shelf’, that the paper packaging does not adequately keep it fresh and that for years she has bought Danish butter because it is cultured butter and as such tastes fresher. The local exception to this being Louis Road Creamery butter, which has caused her to buy local butter again. According to Lauraine, the best way to treat butter is to cut it into small cubes at the time of purchase, wrap them in foil, freeze and take out as required. She also believes that our local olive oils are better than most imports.

When asked by a member of the audience for what she considered one of her signature dishes, she chose her Red Salad (shown above) a salad developed for a special Christmas issue of Cuisine magazine, which she believes to be one of her most successful recipes. This recipe features in the new book. 

When asked what the next trend would be in food, and she spoke hilariously about cake trends “Cupcakes are dead. Macarons have now been over done. Whoopie Pies never gained traction. Next up is the artisanal eclair.” She recently travelled to San Francisco and encountered beautiful eclairs there made with rich chocolate ganache and paper-thin pieces of dark chocolate as an embellishment. Apparently, the eclair is also on the rise in Paris, so we can expect to see them appearing in New Zealand cafes soon.

Lauraine was also asked what her ‘Desert Island Cookbook’ would be and she cited Constance Spry’s 60 year old The Constance Spry Cookery Book because it contains solid recipes for everything from casseroles to jams, but a more recent book which has inspired her is the Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.

According to Lauraine, one of the biggest changes in New Zealand food is how often we shop for ingredients now, the
notion of ‘the weekly shop’ is dying and people are shopping at
supermarkets on average four times a week now.

I really enjoy people with strong opinions plainly spoken, and Lauraine Jacobs delivered on this front. She is clearly a deeply intelligent person, with both an artistic flair for beautiful food and the analytical, forward thinking mind of someone who is always looking to the future of the food industry, how it might improve and change. This was an excellent, educational session and the hour flew by in an instant.

Further recommendations from Lauraine’s session:

• Recipe search and organising site 
• Specialist food-writing bookshop featuring new and vintage food books

Written by Helen Lehndorf. 

Thank you to Auckland Writers & Readers Festival for providing Helen’s ticket to this event.

Everlasting Feast
by Lauraine Jacobs
Published by Random House
ISBN 9781775532538

The Constance Spry Cookery Book
by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume
Published by Grub Street
ISBN 9781908117175

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook
by Yotam Ottolenghi
Published by Ebury Press
ISBN 9780091922344