Hello friends, it’s been a while. But I am back and with possibly the most exciting career news of my life.
I am writing a book. A real-life book that is going to be published and sold in the real world. To real people. To really read.
However, it is not a book I planned on writing. When I started food writing in January last year, I assumed no one would care what I had to say on the subject. At the time I was just stuck in lockdown, writing silly little lists of supermarket products I liked.
Three months later, however, tragedy struck. An old friend died out of the blue.
Unfortunately, it was exactly the week I needed to write an essay for my non-fiction module. I could have tried to write about the pain, but considering that day when I almost burst into tears just trying to decide what potatoes to buy in Sainsbury’s, I knew it was too raw. So instead, I wrote about food. I wrote about the food I loved, that came to me in my time of need because sometimes food is there for you in a way people can’t be. I loved that essay, and still do; it may not be technically perfect, but it is the shield that stands over my broken heart.
Fast forward to just over a year later. When I applied to Saturday Boy Books, I was writing a novel. A difficult, ambitious novel, where I had a lot of good scraps but was struggling to coordinate everything into a coherent throughline. It was starting to feel impossible. So when I read about Saturday Boy Books and what they were offering, a fairly paid platform for underrepresented food writers, an idea started to form in the back of my head. A simpler idea, built upon some of the stuff I had written about in this newsletter, as well as elsewhere, and some things I had never shared in my writing before. Things I feel very strongly about, as well as some things I have hidden because I feel ashamed of them. Like all my ideas, I spent an afternoon brewing this idea over instead of working on anything I was supposed to be working on, and with the help of my friends managed to cobble together an application pretty quickly. Shortly after, I had to send over a portfolio of writing. I could have sent some of my published journalism, but I knew I had to send something meatier, that showed off a bit more of what I wanted to write, so I sent over the essay I had written about food instead of grieving.
And much to my surprise, they wanted to publish it. So here we are.
The book is called Fussy and will be about my journey from picky eater to food lover, and it is essentially a love story. However, like all good love stories, there have been many obstacles and the book will discuss the difficulties and some of the socio-political factors that have been behind them. However, it will also sometimes be very silly. Such is life! (And food).
So I (tentatively) want to bring this newsletter back. I can’t promise how regular it will be, but I need a place to keep all my scrappy little thoughts about food and writing, so I hope to keep this as a form of diary. But for all my writer friends, fiction and non-fiction, as well as the simply curious, I also hope that it will give you all an honest insight into what it takes to write a book.
The book should be out in Summer 2023, so stay tuned on here and my Twitter/Instagram, as well as following Saturday Boy Books, for further deets on the launch, where to buy, and my eventual book tour of the UK and beyond (if I have my way).
Thanks for reading and I really hope you like it.
Now, for dessert, here are my food highlights of the week:
I felt like a conspiracy nut when I told everyone the Oatly chocolate milk is better when you buy it from the shelf, not the fridge, but I looked closely and the recipe is different - they have now rebranded the fridge milk as ‘chocolate deluxe’ which I assume means more viscous and less sugar? Either way, the long-life milk is the GOAT as it has a nice sweet chocolatey flavour but less gloopy texture, and everyone needs to start buying it so it doesn’t get discontinued and I get sad.
Bundobust gobi toast
Part of their limited Indo-Chinese fusion menu but this was a truly interesting and novel vegetarian take on the prawn toast that was delicious! Perfectly fried with a soft pillowy texture and a nice sesame crunch, as well as a lovely subtle spiced cauliflower flavour. If they could keep this on the menu forever for me, they would be doing me a massive solid.
It’s always nice to be able to support a local company and Dormouse is a Manchester company just making really good quality chocolate in a variety of flavours. I like the Toasted White Chocolate which is an award-winning take on the caramelised white chocolate trend we’ve seen so much lately, but also if you like darker, complex chocolate there is plenty for you to like too. My friends were also impressed with their bar from Grenada!
a deep-fried pickle
I didn’t consider myself a pickle person except occasionally in burgers, but recently I went to Paradise Palms in Edinburgh (which does great veggie/vegan food btw) and was so hungry, that I accepted the offer of sharing some deep-fried pickles and I am now a converted woman. The combo of acidic crunch and crispy fried batter? A winner. I’m still not sure if I would eat pickles by themselves Adam Sandler style, but I look forward to seeing where this new relationship goes.