The Great British Bake Off is back and there’s a new judge in the tent: the one and only Nigella Lawson. Her debut is already being hailed by critics as a success, but is it any surprise when so much of her brand thrives on many of the same things that make people love Bake Off?
Lawson has always centred pleasure and amateurishness in her cooking – mistakes are always welcome and nothing should ever be taken too seriously. Her humour is playful and warm, always suggestive but never fully blue. The aesthetics of her culinary world are inviting and homely in a very British way.
Jenny Lawson, an expert in women and food, explains how this aspirational fantasy of domesticity aligns with Bake Off’s premise. Despite being a competition, there is a lovely camaraderie between the show’s rivals. Bake Off has also always revelled in innuendo, from soggy bottoms to firm buns. This confection is a pastel-coloured, sugar-covered delight.
However, both Nigella and Bake Off bolster the idea of femininity as warm, domestic, intimate and attainable while being polished, traditional and privileged. Both shape who gets to be seen as the ideal home cook and what their spaces should look like – something past and present contestants who don’t fit this mould have had to navigate in the face of fan vitriol.
But I do love Nigella and her wink-wink bawdiness, so I will be watching this season. Reply to our poll to let us know who’s your favourite British TV chef and what it is about their culinary world that so speaks to you.
The Great British Bake Off is on Channel 4
Read more: The domestic goddess enters the tent: Nigella Lawson and Bake Off thrive on the same fantasy
British food – and English food in particular – has quite a bad reputation. But anyone who lives here or who has visited recently, knows that is a load of utter tosh. I love a roast, yearn for fish and chips and revel in the comfort of a good cottage pie and baked beans. If you’ve suffered bad English food then I suspect you have been victim to a bad cook.
Food historians Rachel Rich and Lisa Smith write in defence of British food and explain how it got its bad rep. Turns out, we have rationing to blame for the idea that British food is bland. In their book, The King’s Dinner, the two academics and their co-authors explore the diversity of flavours in British food by drawing on the vast kitchen ledgers of two royal households. It is a wonderful exploration of what it meant to be British at the end of the 18th century.
The King’s Dinner is out now
A dish our current king will most certainly not have enjoyed this week is the one served cold by his former brother-in-law, Charles Spencer. His new memoir, Swan Song, has caused quite a furore in the press. The memoir has been marketed as “the most intimate, loving and honest portrait” of Diana yet and, unsurprisingly, it does not paint a very flattering picture of the royal family.
King Charles comes off worst, described in one of the more damning tidbits as being “giddily elated” on learning of Diana’s death. However, as reviewer Kate Cantrell notes, despite its claim to be the authoritative account of Diana’s life, it is only another interpretation.
Swan Song is out now
Read more: Swan Song: Diana’s brother flips the royal family the bird in his scathing new book
Hidden stories
In The Disappearers, Marlon James boldly brings to life the hidden worlds of gay Jamaicans. Beginning in late 1980s Kingston, the book follows eight gay men as they gather to rehearse a play about homosexuality and sexual power play. Performing a gay play, let alone being gay, places these men in the path of violence, and they are keenly aware of that threat.
For a brief moment, the rehearsal space offers freedom to be who they are. But this respite is destroyed one night when the group becomes victim to a violent homophobic attack that leaves one of them dead. Shortly afterwards, two others disappear.
In the years that follow, one survivor attempts to investigate what happened while society averts its gaze and buries the incident. Our reviewer, Alison Donnell – an expert in expanding and recovering Carribean literary histories – found the novel to be “a powerful literary reckoning with a hidden past”. She deems the book a virtuoso literary performance with all the hallmarks that makes James a great writer. But most importantly, it “is an enraged and personal act of restitution”.
The Disappearers by Marlon James is out now
Read more: The Disappearers: Marlon James’s new novel gives voice to the gay men Jamaica erased
Another book shedding light on lesser-explored areas of life is Before I Forget by Anne Pauly. In this book, the French writer explores the challenges of caring for an ageing parent who was incredibly abusive. Anne’s father was a violent alcoholic who refuses to acknowledge just how awful he was to her and her mother and yet, she’s still caring for him.
As our reviewer notes, it’s hard to comprehend fully how such a bully can be so beloved by his victim. However, Pauly pulls off a skilful exploration of this complex situation, giving the reader the space to make their own mind up about Anne and her father. Pauly also manages to be acerbically funny amid all the trauma, a feat in itself. This is a book that’s uniquely and adeptly attuned to the messiness and complexities of human grief and familial love.
Before I Forget by Anne Pauly is out now
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