Notre Dame

IMG_3441We were in Paris, having supper at Le Vieux Colombier. C was flicking through her phone. Suddenly she said, ‘My god, Notre Dame’s on fire.’ We were surprised, but thought little of it, there was a fire in Saint Sulpice recently which came and went with little comment. I could see a sort of pale coffee coloured cloud drifting through the sky, but it wasn’t till we left the restaurant and began walking towards the river that we realised it was smoke from the fire. Photos of the fire were appearing on Twitter. A man passed us as we stopped by St Germain market to look at the sky. ‘Notre Dame,’ he said. He was an American tourist and he showed us a photo of the fire that he’d taken on his camera.

As we walked along Boulevard Saint Germain everyone seemed to be walking in one direction, towards Notre Dame – some people were running. Closer to Saint Michel the sky was full of smoke and the smell of burning was in the air.

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Sirens were wailing and police cars and vans manoeuvred their way through the traffic, their blue lights flashing.

When we got to St Michel at the busy intersection with the Metro station and the bridge across the Seine, there were hundreds of people all over the road, there was no question of traffic moving. People were mostly silent staring along the river – people in despair, hands at their mouths, distressed, watching in silence they were all over the road – it’s a busy intersection.  It seemed that everyone had their mobile phones in the air (me included) taking photos. All we could see at first was smoke behind Le Depart – a friendly restaurant we often go to – but we moved through the crowd, closer to the river and then we could see it – glowing red, as if reflecting the setting sun.

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Occasionally the flames flared higher. Cars were hooting, police whistles blowing, and still the sirens.

We decided we were not useful there and came back to the flat. On the TV there was nothing but Notre Dame. Macron who had intended to speak to the nation about austerity cancelled his speech. Rich people said they would donate millions of Euros towards rebuilding the church.

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The next morning we walked back to Notre Dame. We got much closer. The area was swarming with media vans and cameras on tripods and people speaking into them, carefully coiffed but importantly concerned (mostly).

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IMG_3419 (2)The ruin/remains had become the tourist attraction itself.

We decided to visit Berkeley Books – an English language second-hand bookshop near Odeon, run by an American woman from Chicago. Recently someone smashed one of the shop’s windows so a friend of hers created a stained-glass panel (using some of the shards from the broken pane) and today it was being fitted. We went and celebrated something new and beautiful in the sadness of the city.

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How I got to the Bar

Barrister

When I was a mod in Chelmsford the nearest I got to the legal system was supporting my mates in the local magistrates court. They were there for all the reasons that young men find themselves in trouble with the law – fighting, obstructing the police, resisting arrest. My dad was the District Secretary for the AEU and as such was appointed a magistrate, but I never went to court with him.

I left school and did a philosophy degree at Birmingham University. While I was working as a teacher in Leicester I became involved with the local Women’s Aid group. I went on to work as the National Co-ordinator for the National Women’s Aid Federation (NWAF as it then was). There we supported Jo Richardson MP, providing statistics and case histories, as her private member’s bill wound its way through parliament and became The Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1976. The Act was revolutionary because for the first time a power of arrest could be attached to a civil injunction.

Domestic Violence Act 1976

I realised how important the law was in women’s lives, so when I left NWAF I decided to retrain as a barrister. I also had a lot of black clothes, so it seemed like a good move.

I received a grant to do the conversion course – those were the days – at the Polytechnic of Central London (now University of Westminster). For the Vocational Course at the Council for Legal Education I had to fund myself. I had a lot of support from the women I knew and I gave English classes at our local refuge. On occasion I cut my friends’ hair for money. I spent some time looking through the Charities Directory and applied to various charities – The Gentlewomen’s Work and Help Fund, the Elizabeth Nuffield Foundation and the Dame Henrietta Barnett Trust Fund all gave me small awards. The effect of such awards was two-fold – it was a help financially but it was also a confidence boost – that someone out there thought I was a person who justified support.

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I was called to the Bar in 1980 as a member of Middle Temple, and was lucky enough to have a 6 month pupillage with Stephen Sedley.

28I did my second six at Wellington Street Chambers and was offered a tenancy there. At Wellington Street I was able to do the work I had come to the Bar to do – represent women in their applications for an injunction against their violent partners. I also represented the Greenham Common women, miners and miners’ wives during the Strike, lesbian mothers and, in Criminal Injury Compensation hearings, women and children who had suffered sexual abuse. Later I left crime and concentrated on family law, as it seemed to me that that the family courts are the place where women most often come into contact with the law.

women's legal landmarks book

I’ll be talking about representing the Greenham Common women ‘In Conversation’ at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London on Wednesday 10 April at 5-6pm. It’s part of the Women’s Legal Landmarks project. Admission is free but booking is essential – book here.

This article first appeared on the First 100 Years website.

First 100 years

Weekend in Lisbon part 3

Portugal Lisbon Feb 2019 (107)

Letter 3 to Susan

Pousada de Lisboa

Saturday afternoon 3.30pm

As we walked along the road this morning we passed one of those shops that always used to fill me with delight and anticipation – a stationery shop. I so rarely write letters these days that I don’t go into them (having said that I found a lovely shop on Holloway Road just before Christmas where I spent a giddy 20 minutes floating past shelves of tissue paper and crepe papers and intricate clever Christmas cards and envelopes.) Anyway – this morning I drifted in – being still in epistolary mode and looked for writing paper. There were no pads at all, just sheets of paper that you bought individually – but they were all thick, stiff, luridly coloured and the man said, no they didn’t have pads. So I bought this exercise book – entitled worryingly ‘Disciplina’ – because I liked the lines down the side. And some cheap envelopes and some pretty coloured paper bags.

Portugal Lisbon Sunday February 2019 (19)      Portugal Lisbon Sunday February 2019 (18)

Then we walked up to the tower, Elevador de Santa Justa, that the student of Gustave Eiffel designed. It looked interesting – like an ornate high lift.

Lisbon February 2019 (4)You shoot to the top apparently and there’s a café and a monastery and you look out over the roofs of Lisbon and then you come down – but there was an enormous queue – so we looked at it for a few seconds and walked on.

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When we first arrived we were walking around quite aimlessly, knowing nothing, up and down cobbled hills lined with small old houses, some streets were very pretty but much of it was depressing – crumbling walls, peeling paint and so much graffiti, a lot of it just scribble, some old and faded, like a mess of old tattoos.

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But then we did the guided bus tour and drove through business areas, modern glass and steel, wonderful art deco and art nouveau buildings, and beautifully tended green parks.

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Even the old prison was pretty – it was pink!

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Doubtless quite horrible inside. Apparently Portugal was the first country to ban capital punishment and the prison was built to house long-term serious offenders. And in front of the heavy wooden doors was a straggle (as outside jails all over the world) of tired women waiting to see sons, husbands, dads, lovers. As D Trump might say, ‘SAD.’

Last night we went to a small restaurant we’d noticed in the morning. From the outside it looked fairly unprepossessing – but inside it had the neat look of a 1950s cafeteria. When we got there last night, half of the neon sign was lit up.  ‘Restaurant’ it said, but ‘Rio Grande’ – its name – was still dark and unlit.

Lisbon Rio Grande restaurant     Portugal Lisbon Rio Grande restaurant Feb 2019 (257)      Portugal Lisbon Rio Grande restaurant Feb 2019 (262)

We began with the usual starters, where various items are brought to the table and you eat (and pay) for what you want, and don’t pay for what you leave. We had sardine pate which was quite delicious and then C had Porco a Alentejana – pork and clams – a local speciality, and I had liver, as a result of little Portuguese and little English and a bit of pointing. Washed down with house red it was a great meal.

But again Lisbon is so strange – so many of the buildings are crumbling and dilapidated – but on ground level there are sparkling shiny bars and shops. And then, like in the picture below, in the daytime a street maybe grey and empty and covered in graffiti,

Portugal Lisbon Feb 2019 (91)and then at night, in the dark, it was humming! This was just across the road from the Rio Grande and as we were eating hosts of dressed up people wandered past on their way to clubs and restaurants, Fado, the cinema and who knew what else.

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We’ve had a great time, lots of walking, lots of looking, and we’ve drunk coffee – in fancy places with Art Nouveau, on small quiet terraces with blazing sun (it’s February!) and tea with hot milk amid heaving crowds of tourists.

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But city breaks are tricky. You rush from one thing to another so you’ve ‘done’ everything and it’s exhausting and you don’t get to really know anywhere. But with the increasing size of my Portuguese vocabulary, and being deep in Small Death in Lisbon I’d like to come back and do some more exploring.

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This morning we discovered that part of the buffet breakfast is champagne!  So tomorrow, as our last hurrah – we shall go for the sparkling wine and get slaughtered before we leave for the airport.

Sunday morning

A clearly sensible breakfast but note the sparkling wine.

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We went for a last walk round to the east of the town, wandering along the bank of the river and then climbing up and up. There quite by accident we found the Museu do Aljube Resistencia e Liberdade, Resistance and Liberty. And because it was Sunday morning we got in free. It was a wonderful museum, set in an old prison, where political prisoners were brought.

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It was moving and powerful, recounting the story of Salazar’s regime (1932-68), in Portugal and in the Portuguese colonies, and then the Carnation Revolution which ended the regime (by then under the leadership of Marcello Caetano) on 25 April 1974. It was called the Carnation Revolution because almost no shots were fired and carnations were put in the muzzles of guns.

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It was great to have found the Museum – it wasn’t mentioned in our guide book (bought the week before our visit). And there was a lovely cafe at the very top of the building with this extraordinary view.

Time to go home. I haven’t mentioned the Portuguese love of cinnamon (in the cafe at the Museum there were packets of cinnamon sticks to, I assume, stir in your coffee) nor have I talked about how easy it is to mistake pumpkin jam for apricot jam – it’s too tragic.

Here endeth the third letter.

Liz x

Weekend in Lisbon part 2

Lisbon Portugal February 2019 (43)

My second letter to Susan

Pousada de Lisboa

Saturday 9.20am

Yesterday was a day of activity and walking. Lisbon is a very hilly city, but its pavements are a thing of beauty.

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With all the walking one of my feet almost dropped off. Certainly my shoes are suffering. You may have noticed that I have adopted a lace-up suede brothel-keeper type shoe, which others might unkindly call a cheap trainer. Whatever, they are falling to pieces – which may be due to my putting them on and off without undoing the laces. What did our mothers always tell us? Apart from warning us that if we went out with wet hair we would have cranial arthritis in old age. So many things I should have listened to.

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2 things of note happened yesterday:

  1. A little old lady came cackling out of a café. She was about 80, about 4’ tall and she had a stick. She shouted to us. She wanted help getting down the kerb. She knew no English and my Portuguese ‘I’d like a white coffee, por favor’ did not fit the bill. She clutched my arm and kept laughing. As did 2 women who worked in the café who came out for a smoke. We got down the kerb then went round the corner and got up on the pavement (such as it was – all stony cobbles) again. We double kissed goodbye and she patted my face. She may have invited us to her house – which the guide book assures us happens – but how could I tell?
  2. We went on a tour bus, around the city. We eschewed tram 28 which is regarded as a must do – every one which passed us was full, with people standing in the aisles.

Lisbon Portugal February 2019 (8)Lisbon Portugal February 2019 (45)On our big yellow bus we got to sit at the front (yes, almost driving the bus ourselves) with our earphones in and a great view of the town and its hills, its curves and its fantastic architecture.

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I knew so little about Portuguese history: Vasco da Gama – I knew the name, but did I know he  was the first person (with his crew, obviously) to sail directly from Europe to India? No. I knew little of Portugal’s extraordinary colonial past, nor the 1755 earthquake which destroyed much of Lisbon. And we learned a little about the rise of Salazar, from his time as a 21 year old in 1910 watching the revolution which overthrew the Portuguese monarchy to his time as a dictator, side by side with Franco’s Spain, until the end of his rule in 1968. We passed the 25 April bridge, renamed to commemorate the end of the dictatorship (Estado Novo) in April 1974. It is apparently the 32nd largest suspension bridge in the world and crosses the River Tagus, from Lisbon to the municipality of Almada on the south bank of the river.

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Also in the Belem area is the Monument to the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos) originally built for the 1940 World Fair held in Lisbon. A wonderful stirring, almost brutalist, piece of sculpture.

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And we saw a fashion shoot as our bus was stuck in a traffic jam for 10 minutes.

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I’ve started reading A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson so it’s quite good to know some of the areas – Belem, Cais do Sodre, Avenida da Liberdade. And having found the language almost impenetrable, with the strangeness of the ‘ow’ and the ‘sh’ sounds, it feels very good to be able to ask for uma meia de leite (a coffee with milk, literally ‘a half of milk’) and um garoto (a small white coffee).

Portugal Lisbon Feb 2019 (305)And everyone is so pleased when you try to speak Portuguese that people smile and correct your pronunciation till you get it right.

For lunch we went to the Time Out market, so named because it was an idea of a former Time Out travel writer from Lisbon, who saw a crumbling market and had an idea. It even bears the Time Out logo. It sells fruit, vegetables, and fish, but it also has many little booths (some run by Michelin star chefs) where you buy take-away/fast food and then sit at long tables in the middle of the vast hall, to eat. We had salt cod fritters and a glass of cold white wine each.

Portugal Lisbon Time Out market Feb 2019 (101)      Portugal Lisbon Time Out market Feb 2019 (217)   Portugal Lisbon Time Out market Feb 2019 (218)      Portugal Lisbon Time Out market Feb 2019 (221)   Portugal Lisbon Time Out market Feb 2019 (220)

Then more walking. Rua do Arsenal, a road which leads off the Praca do Comercio, is famous for its salt cod shops. Salt cod (bacalhau), like the fritters we had for lunch, is a local delicacy, so old shops with a deep musty smell of salt cod rub shoulders with tourist shops selling all sorts of items with a yellow tram logo – fridge-magnets, towels, tea towels, pots, plates.

Later we had a glass of Mateus Rosé in an old pretty hotel (Browns) bar called – we later learned – the Browns Burger Bar. Everyone else was eating burger and chips. It reduced the sense of sophistication.

Lisbon Portugal Browns Burger Bar February 2019 (36)

Now we are striding out again, feet throbbing in anticipation.

Liz x

Portugal Lisbon Feb 2019 (70)

 

Weekend in Lisbon

Lisbon February 2019 (9)

We’ve just come back from Lisbon. I had never been to Portugal before and before we went I tried to learn some Portuguese. While I was there I took the opportunity to write a few letters to old friend Susan. This is the first.

Pousada de Lisboa

Friday morning 8.30

So here we are in a very swanky hotel in Lisbon. We arrived yesterday.

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We chose the hotel because it was so central and looked so yellow and pretty. And it is very central – on the Praça do Comércio, right by the river Tagus. We came in on the airport bus, passing through streets of pastel coloured buildings, Roman, Germanic, Moorish architecture, art deco, and everywhere, of course, trams.

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In our hotel room we found a plate of Pasteis de Nata (the famous custard tarts), with strawberries and blackberries.

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It is very central. But rather like our holiday in Toulouse last year – the main square (Praça) is where everything happens. Last year it was a pop concert so when we came back from dinner we had to queue to be searched before we could get into our hotel. Last night it was football – enormous groups of men in red and orange scarves heaving and singing in all the bars around the square. We went for a walk down to the river, looking across at the 25 April bridge and the Cristo Rei statue

Portugal Lisbon River Tagus Feb 2019 (41)and when we came back the fans had been joined by stalwart riot police, with vans and bizarrely a couple of clowns with balloons.

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Benfica, the Lisbon team, were playing a Turkish team, Galatasaray – it was a rematch. The score was 0-0, but Benfica won on aggregate (I just read that – these are not my own words).

We have just had breakfast – as always, you walk in and want to eat everything – muesli, egg and bacon, fresh fruit (which in Portuguese the BBC videos tell me, is Fruta da epoca – fruit of the epoch!), croissants, pains aux raisins, doughnuts, brownies, pastel de nata … By Saturday we’ll just want toast.

Now we are going out to see the sights. I understand from Tourmeister C that we shall be going up in a great lift designed by a student of Gustav Eiffel, to see a monastery. But first we are going to have um café (com leite) in a famous café – Cafe A Brasileira – where poets and artists used to hang out (now probably heaving with tourists like ourselves).

Portugal Lisbon Feb 2019 (128)

Portugal Lisbon Feb 2019 (121)

We have a list of things we absolutely must do before we go home – drink vinho verde and Mateus Rosé. List ends.

Liz x

Women’s Legal Landmarks

women's legal landmarks book

Women’s Legal Landmarks – In 1919 women were allowed for the first time to enter the to enter the legal profession in the UK and Ireland.

The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 (2)

To commemorate this historic event Hart Publishing are publishing a wonderful and inspiring book, Women’s Legal Landmarks. Edited by Erika Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty, the book identifies key landmarks in women’s legal history. Over 80 authors write about significant achievements or turning points in women’s engagement with law and law reform.

greenham articleI have written one of the chapters in the book, Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, 1981 – 2000, which describes the phenomenon of the group of peace women who set up camp outside the Greenham Common airbase to protest the proposal to place cruise – nuclear – missiles there. The women used their position to inform the country and indeed the world about the plan. As a result of their actions, sitting in the road, blocking the exit of US air-force vehicles, entering the airbase, the women were often arrested and then, like the suffragettes before them, were jailed for their beliefs. I had the honour of representing them. The way the women used the law and the courts to further their cause is the subject of this chapter.

In a podcast recorded for Pod Academy 3 years ago, when the book was just a twinkle in Erika and Rosemary’s eyes, we talked about the plan. Listen here

Greenham (3)

Greenham (7)

The other landmarks in the book cover a wide range of topics, including matrimonial property, the right to vote, prostitution, surrogacy and assisted reproduction, rape, domestic violence, FGM, equal pay, abortion, image-based sexual abuse, and the ordination of women bishops, as well as the life stories of women who were the first to undertake key legal roles and positions.

I’ll be speaking about the book and my chapter at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at 5.30 on 10 April 2019.

 The book is out in December 2018.

A Week of Being Published

Two young readers

Last Thursday, The Saturday Girls, my novel about mod girls in the Sixties, was published by Bonnier Zaffre. The day was very exciting in a quiet sort of way. Quite unexpectedly, my niece first thing went to her local Sainsbury’s with her two sons (3 and 1) and sent me a photo of them in the trolley, holding copies of the book. It was such a lovely surprise and quite moving – that she should do that, and also that the boys should sit quietly and hold the book nicely. I have to say, other photos show them considering eating the books, but hey.

I then cruised round North London and visited any Sainsbury’s I could see (2) – and there it was on the shelves. I lounged around for a bit, but I began to worry about security and so left, quietly proud.
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My publisher sent me the most wonderful flowers,
Bonnier Zaffre flowers (2)
Our local Waterstones said they’d like to do an event (more later). There was coffee and wine consumed in local cafes and bars, and more flowers. To round off the day I went out for a meal at our local neighbourhood Italian restaurant Passione e Tradizione . It’s quite new and quite simple but it does (amongst other things) fabulously delicate and lovely bruschetta.
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And then I got home to find that a book blogger ( @glued_to_pages) had posted a lovely review on Instagram.
A great day.
Since then I have spent the week answering requests from more book bloggers to write for their blogs, pieces with titles such as ‘When I was a Saturday Girl’, ‘Writing as a Second Career’ and ‘My Writing Day’. One blogger sent a questionnaire with a really thought provoking (for me) series of questions, one of which was – list three books that changed your life.I chose 6 of course, starting with Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys and Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann. I wonder what you’d choose… When I know when these pieces will be published, I’ll put the info on here.
Voyage in the dark
Yesterday I went to Chelmsford. I spoke to the manager of Foyles about an event  – more of that later. Even though it was pouring with rain it was lovely to see the book in the window.
Foyles Chelmsford 2
Then I went to visit Auntie Rita who has a small flat in the centre of town –  you have to pass the Shire Hall, the magistrates’ court, the Crown Court and the police station to get to it, which always brings back memories. Over coffee and half an iced bun each, she suggested that she and my cousins J and J who still live in Chelmsford should all go to the local Sainsbury’s in Boreham and form a queue trying to get at the book, as seen on TV on the first day of the Sales. I said perhaps there could be a small amount of struggling to make it look really desirable. But then we decided that J & J would never do that although I think Auntie Rita (90) was up for it.
Dates for your diary – next week I shall be on BBC London Radio (Tuesday 4 September 10.30) talking to Robert Elms, and then BBC Radio Essex (Friday 2pm) talking to Tony Fisher about the book.
IMG_8237Now it’s off to Paris. Expect more pictures of coffee cups.
Cafe de Flore
postcards

Suffragette Angel Cake

the suffrage cook book front cover

When was the last time you talked about Angel Cake?

The Saturday Girls first edition

Here’s my answer to that question – quite a lot, quite recently. About a week ago I received the first print copy of The Saturday Girls ) (out next Thursday!! pre-order it now). How lovely it looks!  And there, tucked into the back of the book is a recipe for Angel Cake – because there is a delicious, moist, soft Angel birthday cake actually in the book. And this is a real life Angel Cake – not a cake mix! When I knew there would be a cake in the back of the book I decided to do a little research to see what it actually tastes like. I’m not sure it’s meant to have icing, but it tasted very good. I did a bit of a wide ranging search in fact and I have to say that Tesco’s own brand came out rather well.

   Angel cake        Angel cake Sainsbury's (2)

Then on Wednesday at a social event, with much, much white wine and a sprinkling of canapes, I found myself in conversation with a French scientist who loves to bake. ‘What is your favourite cake?’ I asked, quite innocently. And she said, ‘Angel cake,’ just like that and proceeded to give me yet another recipe. We then had a discussion about what to do with egg yolks and how much mayonnaise can one household actually eat. But that need not trouble us here.

cooking up votes

Because on Thursday, the very next day, a story was published in the Guardian about the reissue of the Suffrage Cook Book (read a review here). A book to warm the hearts and stomachs of those fighting the good fight to obtain votes for women. And the recipe they printed to go along with the story was … Suffrage Angel Cake!

suffrage angel cake recipe

I think what we can draw from this is that it’s all pointing one way. It all started with The Saturday Girls. And that’s where it’s heading. Published by Bonnier Zaffre, it comes out on 23 August 2018 – next Thursday. Pre-order it now!

Saturday Girls

And once it is in your hands – the book really is beautifully produced – you can try out the recipe. And when you have produced a delicious cake, then  you can sit down with a generous slice, a cup of tea and a good book (The Saturday Girls obviously) and relive the heady days of the Sixties, when Saturday night was the night for dancing and the Corn Exchange was the place to be, and have a really, really good time.

 

Summer Season

The Saturday Girls first edition

And what a summer it has been! Trips to the theatre, Moliere – in France and in London. Shakespeare in Peckham Rye and my book The Saturday Girls has arrived in solid form, looking beautiful and clear, ready for its launch on 23 August.

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First there was Toulouse, a city I have never visited and often confuse with Toulon. Never to be confused again! Toulouse has a radical past and a vibrant present: a university, a river – the Garonne – and a strong aeronautical presence, having welcomed, in 1926, Antoine de Saint Exupery, pilot and author of Le Petit Prince.

Le Petit PrinceWe arrived on the eve of the Fete de la Musique. It is a huge annual event. There was to be a concert in the Place du Capitole, the main square in the town, close to our hotel. We went out for dinner that evening, and coming back we had to pass through the Place

. Toulouse journal Fete de la Musique

And so we had to join the queues of young people waiting to go and have a good time which meant being searched. Bags were opened, we were rubbed down. But everyone was good humoured and we didn’t have long to wait.

The next day was hot and interesting. We wandered by the river Garonne,

Toulouse River Garonne

went to the market, drank coffee, ate lunch.

Toulouse 2018 market (10)      Toulouse 2018 market (18)      Toulouse 2018 market (20)

Toulouse 2018 (122)The next day we travelled up to Saint Antonin Noble Val a small medieval town on the Aveyron river – a perfect holiday retreat. A lovely house with a large garden, a boulangerie a minutes walk away, and restaurants, cafes and bars all close by – all in the setting of pretty medieval buildings, and a lot of art. We even found ourselves attending a couple of private views.

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Saint Antonin (27)And in the middle of the week the Saint Antonin writers’ group hosted an evening of Moliere. In a local restaurant, le Capharnaüm, two actors performed short scenes from Fourberies de Scapin, a play which had its premiere on 24 May 1671, at the Palais Royal in Paris. It was hot and the actors wore masks and wigs, but great fun was had by all.

Moliere 3 (2)      Moliere (2)

Back in London there was more Moliere, at the Haymarket Theatre, Tartuffe, Moliere’s 1664 play. It was in both French and English with subtitles, but its main draw was to see the actor Audrey Fleurot, who appears as the tricky red haired lawyer in Spiral, the French police series Engrenages. It was interesting.

Tartuffe Haymarket July 2018           Tartuffe Haymarket July 2018

So much theatre! There was also the rather marvellous Measure for Measure by Changeling Theatre, in Peckham Rye, and as well as their Blithe Spirit in Saint Bartholomew’s Church. And earlier there was Macbeth in Crouch End by The Factory Theatre company.

But the loveliest last part was to receive a copy of The Saturday Girls in the post. It’s the first time I have seen the spine with its lovely Z for Zaffre and the back cover with its very kind quote from Mary Gibson a writer of many successful novels. I can’t wait for 23 August when the book will finally come out.

The Saturday Girls first edition                The Saturday Girls back cover

a bowl of cherries