From Mad about Bridget to Mad at Bridget- 'Bridget Jones: Mad about the Boy' by Helen Fielding

Whilst  I was on holiday in Menorca last week, after just a few days I ran out of reading material having ploughed through the books I had bought with me (reviews on The Rosie Project and We Were Liars to come). In a Spar near the beach there was a small number of books in English so, after some hesitation I picked out Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. I hesitated because I had told myself not to read the book when it first came out- to me, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason wrapped things up nicely and maybe, just maybe, any more of the same Bridget jokes would wear thin. I gave in though as surely Bridget is the ultimate beach read. Spoilers to come, you have been warned.

Like to about 10 million other women (and some men I'd imagine) in the late nineties, to me, Bridget was the ultimate comic heroine. As Bridget's story was seemingly concluded in the Edge of Reason when she ran of into the sunset with Mark Darcy, Fielding chose to kill off Darcy in order to have something to write about in her third instalment. Fine: deaths do happen, Darcy can remain implausibly perfect in his death and we, as Bridget fans, want to know what will happen to her.

After a period of five years (presumably the amount of time Fielding felt was appropriate for Bridget to grieve Darcy) Bridget is back in the dating game and rarely looks back (bar perhaps the sentimental final page). She quickly charms a loveable and good looking guy, embarrassingly called 'Roxter' whom she woos via twitter with some painfully cringey tweets. Their 'modern' relationship, which revolves around tweets, texts and dating websites, is predictably, a fling. Bridget's new obsession with her iPhone verges on idiotic; she frantically reads and replies to her toyboy's texts under the table in a 'business meeting' as if she is 15 not 51. Annoying. Of course, one of the only other male characters who Bridget  demonstrates her hapless, semi incompetent self to falls in love with her so we have a rushed, happy ending.

Aside from her world of dating, Bridget has her children. There are some quite touching moments she shares with them but I'm afraid, on the whole, Fielding fails to accurately represent a realistic life of a single mother. Yes, she is middle class (having inherited a small fortune from Darcy) but, as she is unemployed, has a nanny and a cleaner, makes constant net-a-porter and asos orders, you will most probably find it hard to empathise with her.

There are of course funny moments and Fielding's style is, as ever, natural and engaging. However, I feel that she would have done better to move on from Bridget. I was mostly annoyed with Mad About the Boy. What are your thoughts on it? Sorry if this seems overly critical but as someone who has loved Bridget so much, Mad About the Boy had lots to live up to. If you watch the interview with Fielding which I will link below, it is her enthusiasm and love for Bridget that obviously warped her judgements in Mad About the Boy, making it quite easy to forgive her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DTJVddRHw4

Weekend Reading

Hello! Just a quick post today! Here are a few links to some LIGHT but interesting reading that even the busiest bee can fit into their weekend. Hope you have a good one! 

J.K Rowling's statement regarding The Cuckoo's Calling 

A very funny article on gender focused marketing for cosmetics and toiletry products

Where to find a stylish not swampish dressing gown 

A great, but worrying article about how we are still ignorant about child labour

UK Recipe- Nutella Brownies

So, a rare recipe post and I will tell you why; as I was doing my daily browse on Pinterest, I stumbled across a fantastic- no wait- a fantabulous idea- NUTELLA BROWNIES. However, after following the link I found that all the recipes for Nutella Recipes were American, meaning that ingredients were measured in cups not in grams and I have never found this an accurate way of measuring ingredients and struggle to get the balance right. Therefore I decided to create my own recipe adapted from Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course. The result was not exactly pretty but... the taste (if you could see that) was simply beautiful... sweet, nutty, chocolately, gooey, chewy, squishy... all round my mouth but I don't care... good. I just had to share the recipe with you, it's a crowd pleaser! 

Just look at that chewy, chocolately goo

You will need:

110g unsalted butter

110g chocolate (I used Galaxy, my favourite)

2 eggs

110g light brown sugar

100g caster sugar

50g plain flour

25g cocoa powder

1tsp of baking powder

100g Nutella

1) Preheat the oven to gas mark 4.

2) Put the butter and HALF the chocolate into a big heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

3) Stir until melted and smooth. Take the bowl off the heat.

4) Beat the eggs and add them to the bowl.

5) Sieve in the sugars, flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.

6) Chop up the remaining chocolate into small pieces and add to the bowl.

7) Add the Nutella in small blobs.

8) Stir until well mixed

9) Pour into a square tin, lined with baking parchment.

10) Cook for 35 minutes. I like them gooey in the middle but cook for longer if not. 

University Summer Reading

Hi! Sorry, I know I haven't posted in a while but I've had a busy few weeks. I've been on holiday to Sorrento which was really lovely (especially as I didn't get a holiday last year), stayed at my boyfriend's house for a few days and caught up with family and friends.

Enjoying a nice dog walk with my furry friend

Just as I was getting into an incredibly lazy lifestyle (getting up at half past nine, lounging in the sun etc, etc) my summer reading list dropped into my inbox. For my final year at uni, I have to buy around 40 books. This doesn't include secondary books which I can borrow from the library, these are books I need to have my own copy of. Obviously this is always quite pricey so I buy the books in stages and shop around to get the best deal.

As you can see, there's quite a mixture there. I bought all the Bronte sister's novels that I didn't already have as I am planning on writing on some of their books in my dissertation. I have bought the Oxford World's Classics versions of most of the books as they have really useful explanatory and introductions which are a great help if not essential when you are using books for academic purposes. 

As for shopping around I bought these books from Waterstones Online, Amazon and eBay. Now I know a lot of people (especially my fellow students) write Waterstones off as far too expensive and favour Amazon but when I checked prices online, most of the Oxford World's Classics were either the same price if not slightly cheaper online. Not only that, but students get 10% off with Waterstones (which you don't with Amazon), Waterstones offer loyalty points and often free postage. I did buy a few books from Amazon because they are cheaper on somethings but was disappointed that the books took so long to come and that Amazon have started charging postage. Although eBay doesn't always have what you want, it can be great for books- much better (cheaper and dispatched more quickly) than the sellers on Amazon, probably because the feedback system on eBay is used far more successfully on eBay than Amazon and it's sellers want to maintain a good feedback score. For instance, I bought Shirley by Charlotte Bronte off eBay, brand new Oxford World's Classics edition for £3 including postage. So check on there for bargains. 

I have only read 2 of these books so far- The Professor by Charlotte Bronte and Villette by Charlotte Bronte, both of which I enjoyed and will write a small review of each on here soon. I will be attempting to read Ulysses soon, but I can't say I'm looking forward to it much; it's huge and supposedly difficult to read! Have you read any of the new books I've bought? If so, any advice? What did you think? 

Looking for the Perfect Chocolate Birthday Cake Recipe

This week it was my sister's birthday. I volunteered to make her birthday cake and was quickly instructed that it must be a chocolate cake. I wanted to do something a bit more special than a victoria sponge recipe with cocoa powder and quickly thought of a Lorainne Pascale cake I made in the spring. I have linked the recipe above but it can also be found in the book below.

A quick note about the book- there are some great, classic recipes in this book but there are quite a few of them on the BBC food website so I would bear that in mind if you are considering buying it. Another small issue I have with this book is that for some of the recipes there are no photos. This is not always a problem but I was put off making the 'Red Velvet 3 Tier Cake' when I had no image to give me an idea of how my creation should look.

Lorainne Pascale cake I made in spring. 

I had a few issues with this recipe. Not really with the cake itself, more with the decorations Lorainne suggests and the buttercream. As you can see in the picture above, I did not use the chocolate cigarillos that look so beautiful in the picture of Lorainne's cake. This is because of how expensive they are! Lorainne reckons that you would need around 75 chocolate cigarillos to go round the cake and the cheapest I have found for that quantity for is on Amazon and they would come to £19 including delivery- ouch. I opted for Cadbury's chocolate fingers instead which don't look nearly as elegant but came to around £2.50. For my sister's birthday cake I wanted to find something more attractive than chocolate fingers but less expensive than cigarillos. I also wanted to change the buttercream to chocolate ganache- far more luxurious and suitable for special occasions. As pretty as the strawberries look on the cake above, they quickly made the cake slightly soggy and meant that the cake had to be kept in the fridge rather than the cupboard after the first serving. With this in mind, I quickly came up with a 'compromise cake'.

 For the chocolate ganache I  looked to Nigella's Lawson's book How to Eat for help and chopped up 120 grams of milk chocolate and 120 grams of dark chocolate and put it aside in a bowl. I then heated up 230ml of double cream (or heavy cream if you're American) until it was almost boiling, then poured it over the chocolate until a beautifully glossy mixture was achieved. Once the cake (Lorainne's recipe above) was cool, I spread the ganache generously across the sides and the top of the cake. I decided to use Mikado chocolate biscuit sticks instead of chocolate fingers around the side of the cake and they looked far more elegant. I then added these milk chocolate and white chocolate stars but they'd be pretty easy to make if you'd prefer. For the finishing touch, I tied the bright pink ribbon around the cake. So there you have it, my adapted 'I can't believe you made that cake'. Thanks Lorainne for the great recipe inspiration!

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Five reasons why I would recommendThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte 

1. It's less talked about, dramatised and studied than Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights by Anne's sisters Charlotte and Emily respectively. This means that the story can be read without preconceived expectations which for me, made it more exciting to read. In my opinion, the story is more unpredictable and fast pasted than both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and I enjoyed it more.

Where's Anne? The Tenant of WIldfell Hall definitely deserves more recognition.

2. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a Victorian Novel but it's easy to forget that when you read it today; it's themes are still relevant today. Bronte explores difficulties with domestic life which are still very much relevant today: domestic violence, alcoholism, separation, adultery and female oppression in the home.

3. The characters are especially intriguing; nobody is perfect. Helen, the protagonist, foolishly falls in love with a man who she knows, deep down, will be bad for her. Refreshingly however, she is a strong female character who stands up to and out-smarts her husband. 

4. Like Wuthering Heights, the structure of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is particularly interesting; the novel starts in the future, and the reader is quickly introduced to the mysterious character of Helen who is living in the run down Wildfell Hall with her son. The reader's curiosity is satisfied when the text changes form to Helen's diaries. 

5. If you are a student, then this is an excellent text to write on. I chose to write on how The Tenant of Wildfell Hall challenges the Victorian's expectations regarding domesticity and found that there was lots to say. This would also be a good book to look at if you're writing on   femininity, masculinity, gender relations or marriage. 

Nineteenth Century America, Race and Slavery

Part 1

You know the books that people always say that you should read? Books that will supposedly make you feel humble and fill you with a sense of gratitude because life is (comparably) so easy today? Well one of the many that I have repeatedly been told that I should read is Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Last autumn, I did. 

I'm glad I read it. As you may know, the subjects of the novel are both serious and unpleasant, the key themes being slavery and racism. However, Stowe represents many other horrific issues connected with these themes: the separation of families, sexism, rape, needless violence, heartbreak, pain and death. It's hardly a light read.

The novel is undoubtedly engaging and its characters strong. Stowe makes many, many  significant and well portrayed points about the injustice and horrors of slavery and racism. There are some amazingly insightful lines in Uncle Tom's Cabin that I will add to my favourite quotes page (which I will make after this post). 

However... Uncle Tom's Cabin seems to receive as much criticism as it does praise and it is not hard to see why. Despite my admiration for the novel, I do consider it, at times, to be overly sentimental. The protagonist Tom and the almost equally famous Eva are too good; their patience, morality and submission in the face of such immeasurable injustice I found distanced me from the characters rather than connected me to them. The characters Topsy and Miss Ophelia, though imperfect, are far more convincing and represent the novels themes in a much more believable and relatable way. 

Another problem which I (and I know others) have found with the novel are the condescending descriptions of the black characters- Stowe can, hypocritically, be seen to adhere to and endorse stereotypes of black people. 

That said, I would certainly recommend reading the novel. If you are a student, it is an excellent text to write on; there are many significant, controversial themes that are intriguing to explore and research. I would recommend the 'Oxford World Classics' edition that is pictured as it has very, very useful explanatory notes that uncover unfamiliar language, bible passages and name places. Though I have not said much about the plot as I do not want to give away any spoilers for people who have not read it, I found the novel to be very fast-paced, engaging and, at many times, touching. 

If you have read Uncle Tom's Cabin, what did you think? Do you share my views on Uncle Tom and Eva or did you connect with the characters?