August tea and a book: Penelope Lively

This summer in Oxford I discovered Penelope Lively. In fact I gobbled up three of her books, utterly captivated by her appreciation for setting, history, and the imagination. I won't go into great detail about the plots because they really aren't plotty sorts of stories, but I will tell you that The Ghost of Thomas Kempe (winner of the Carnegie Medal) is a humorous ghost tale set in the Cotswolds, A Stitch in Time (winner of the Whitbread Award) is a gentle mystery set in Lyme Regis, and The House in Norham Gardens is a coming-of-age story set in Oxford.

Is it obvious yet that Penelope Lively and I were made for each other? (If not, note italics above.) Her writing is gorgeously expressive. She even enchants with her description of painting an old swing:

There is the moment you dip the brush in the paint and tap it on the edge to get rid of the drips, and there it is all lush and fat with paint in your hand, ready for the stroke down that sad, hungry, unpainted surface. And there is the moment you lay it on the dull, unpainted surface, and what was rusty and tattered is transformed with one majestic sweep into glistening sparkling black. And there is the dabbing at the links of the chain to make them all neat and painty once more, and the picking out of every curl and flourish of the swing's seat, and the lying on your back to get at the underneath . . . (A Stitch in Time)

I'm delighted that there are many more Penelope Lively books to read, both for adults and children, and at the top of my list is her Booker Prize winning Moon Tiger. (Click here and scroll down for a complete list of her titles.)

And now for tea!


This month's tea is inspired by my friend Caroline Trevers, the conference manager who makes everything work so beautifully for all the summer groups at Brasenose College. At the beginning of our stay, Caroline introduced me to Earl Grey Blue Lady from Cardews of Oxford. This tea is a treat with its spicy flavor and delicate bergamot scent, but it's also just lovely to look at. (My American friends can find similar Earl Grey blends at Adagio.com.)

Caroline also provided the recipe for her Lemon Drizzle Cake, which I first tasted when I co-judged the Brasenose Bake-Off. A decadent chocolate concoction took the top prize that day, but I would have awarded Caroline's Lemon Drizzle "best tea cake ever." I can't seem to get mine to look as beautiful as hers (even after two tries), but it's still very tasty. See the recipe below (translated into American measurements).

Lemon Drizzle cake

¾ cup Fine Caster Sugar (called Baker's sugar in the states? Or just use granulated)
¾ cup Margarine or Butter
3 eggs
¾ cup Self Rising Flour
3 lemons
¼ cup Caster Sugar
1 lb loaf tin (8.5 X 4.5-ish?)

Rub oil or butter around the inside of the loaf tin then dust with a teaspoon of flour so that all the sides are lightly covered. Grate the rind from the lemons and squeeze the juice and put it in a pan. Cream the fat and sugar till well mixed and fluffy, add the lemon rind and mix more. Add the eggs one at a time beating well in between. Sift the flour into the mixture and fold until incorporated.

Pour the mix into a 1 lb loaf tin – bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or till cooked.

5 minutes before the cake is due out of the oven add the extra 2oz of sugar to the lemon juice in the pan and heat it till the sugar melts then boil it for a minute. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven prick it over the top with a fork and pour over the boiling sugar syrup allowing it to soak into the cake. You can pour it down the side and over the top – pour slowly to make sure all the surface is covered so it soaks in evenly.

Let the cake cool a little and then turn it out onto a wire rack till it cools completely.


Caroline, co-judges Alice and Alan, and me in the Brasenose Deer Park

[Cross-posted at Livejournal]

Postcards from Minster Lovell

Last Saturday Steve and I took the bus to Witney so we could hike to the charming town of Minster Lovell. It had been 13 years since we first visited it on a rather rushed Cotswolds Tour, so it was very nice to see the town and River Windrush again at our leisure.


However, things got off to a damp start when we got caught in a downpour. Poor Steve!


St. Kenelm's Church looked very stately, even in the rain.

And while we were dining at The Old Swan (highly recommended), the sun came out!


If this house ever comes up for sale, I will buy it (somehow) and move to Minster Lovell.


And here are the ruins of Minster Lovell Hall. (Did you know that I love a ruin? Of course you did!)


We were going to visit the Dovecote, but I was distracted by this lovely donkey.

Can you believe we're in our final week? Closing dinner tonight, and then exams. I'll try to squeeze in one more post before we go.

[Cross-posted at Livejournal]

Postcards from Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis far surpassed our expectations -- it's such a beautiful, friendly, and easy-going little beach resort. I suppose the only difficult part about it was the steep climb back to our B&B at the end of each day, but I appreciated the exercise after all the good food!


The colorful Marine Parade, with ammonite-shaped street lamps.


Steve on the Cobb.


A view of Lyme Bay from the coastal path. (That was a long, arduous climb to the top!)


Me standing on one of Granny's Teeth -- yes, these are the steps from which Louisa Musgrove tumbled in Jane Austen's Persuasion. (Or so some say -- others say the steps weren't yet there when Jane Austen visited Lyme Regis.) Either way, they are precarious. I walked up the steps, but I'm not sure I'd walk down them, much less run or jump. (Here's another view.)


A beautiful door that illustrates how much pride the locals take in their town.

I suppose we were fortunate to have clear skies and calm breezes, but I'd love to return in the stormy season to see the waves crashing against the Cobb. One can hope, anyway!

[Cross-posted at Livejournal]

July Tea and a Book: the Lyme Regis edition

This month's post features books mostly set in Lyme Regis:


Seems like various people have recommended Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures to me, and I'm not sure why I waited so long to read it. It's a fictionalized account of the friendship between early 19th century fossil hunters/paleontologists Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot. Maybe I held out so long because I thought a story about dinosaur hunters would be dry as dust. I was wrong, of course! Great characters and loads of dramatic tension.

The French Lieutenant's Woman is one of those books I thought I'd read long ago but I must only have read the first 50 pages or so and relied on the film to fill in the rest. What a book! Yes, it's a post-modern take on the Victorians -- "historiographic metafiction" or what have you, but really it's just very entertaining! I laughed through the first 200 pages. The story takes a darker turn 2/3 of the way through (Charles Smithson really is a booby, and we see Sarah Woodruff mostly through his eyes, so I couldn't quite get a grip on her), but I actually liked the "three option" ending. I know my preferred ending is a lot different now than it would have been when I was in my late teens/early twenties. Maybe I need to read it again when I'm 65?

Something else I never knew -- A.S. Byatt wrote Possession as a response to French Lieutenant's Woman? Well, now I have to read THAT again! Weeee!

Now, for the tea portion of this post . . .


Of course, I had to have a cream tea while in Lyme Regis. We chose the garden at the Alexandra Hotel for this light (?) afternoon repast.


I'm usually a "jam on top" sort of person but I'd seen the above photo in one of the local magazines in our room and thought maybe this was the Devon way. Best to try the local(ish) procedure, right?


Turns out I really DO NOT like cream on top. It doesn't spread easily and looks a mess. Just WRONG all around. When we got home (in Oxford, I mean) I did my research and learned this is actually the Cornish way of loading up your scone. Bah! If you'd like to learn more about the "jam or cream first?" controversy, here's a great article from The Guardian.


We enjoyed this view as we ate our scones. More photos of Lyme Regis to come later this week!

[Cross-posted to Livejournal]

Postcards from Wonderland

We returned from Lyme Regis yesterday, but I'll save those details for a post later this week. For now I want to share photos from last Wednesday when the clever Brasenose conference organizers put together a Mad Hatter Tea Party for all the conference groups. Attendees were encouraged to dress up in their maddest hats, or in pretty much anything related to Alice in Wonderland.


A few of our students (shown here with members of the Brasenose crew on either end) took this as a challenge.


But I was even more impressed by the amazing treats!


No matter which way you turned, there was something fun and/or delicious to tempt you.


My hat was not very "mad" at all, but Steve got as creative as he could at the last moment. The ears are part of a zebra headband from Claire's (yes, they have those little jewelry/accessories stores here, too). Can you guess what the blue and white knitted part is? Because it certainly wasn't meant to be a hat!

[cross-posted at Livejournal]