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Sue Baker - Editorial Expert
Latest Reviews By Sue Baker
Has appeal as a rags to riches story but also will act as an inspiration for anyone dreaming of starting their own business. Showing that you don't need qualifications and good school results to get ahead Jo Malone has a passion for business and for encouraging others to reach their potential. Her own poignant story frames her business life - facing cancer and the loss of her business she came through and is now back with her new fragrance house Jo Loves– you can smell one of her first successes, Pomelo, due to the perfumed page tipped in at ... View Full Review
It’s the 100th anniversary of Muriel Spark’s birth in 2018 and therefore time for a reappraisal of a novelist whose influence and importance are often overlooked. Alan Taylor got to know Spark very well and gives a warm, gossipy and rounded picture of a woman who didn’t take many prisoners. As a biography it has the merit of both revealing a very private woman and also reigniting interest in Muriel Spark’s work – an ideal introduction for the anniversary year. ~ Sue Baker
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Curriculum Vitae: A Volume ... View Full Review
Paul Hollywood has chosen over 100 recipes that mean the most to him, the ones he has perfected over the years and that sum up a baker’s life. From learning at his father’s knee to the heights of Great British Bake Off, Paul Hollywood has been striving for excellence throughout his career and now these recipes have been adapted for home bakers. An interesting and rounded collection of recipes, as you would expect, an ideal starting point for cooks wanting to learn new recipes and techniques and also to build up a core baking repertoire. ~&... View Full Review
I have a book, in similar format and subject on my own area showing excerpts from all the relevant mapping from the earliest to current times, the fascination being one of watching change happening as it does here in John Moore’s book. From the very beginnings, a tiny Glasgow steadily growing until it needs a map just to show where the sludge vessel is going to tip its load. Then, of course there are the world-famous docks, changing and developing along the banks of the Clyde. There are small towns obliterated by grandiose plans, naval maps and town ... View Full Review
A chance read magazine article found in a Dentist’s waiting room sets Nick Perry, his wife and 3 children off on a quest to find a home in Greece. They’d sold their Welsh farm and looked for a better way of life – and a better climate. They landed, rather by accident on Icaria, an island midway between Naxos and Samos and there began their adventure – and the need to find a living. I liked this travel adventure a great deal, the family aspect gives another dimension, their relative poverty gives it forward momentum and of ... View Full Review
Both a how to do it and a go-to guide for the mathematically challenged. Knowing maths can save you money and avert disaster. It may be forms or mortgages and insurance, measurements or conversions, weights and tax – all can cause confusion at best or panic at worst, see how Hywel Carver’s guide can make the sums add up. ~ Sue Baker
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How Not to be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Lives by Jordan Ellenberg
Everyday Maths for Grownups: Getting to Grips with the Basics by Kjartan Poskitt View Full Review
Cats have the answers; we humans only have to watch – and learn. Life lessons in friendship, courage and responsibility or discovering how to improve your appearance and surroundings – Neil Somerville reminds us of what there is to learn…. I see he is not encouraging us to take up curtain climbing and the similar bad habits I could learn from my cats so we are talking ideal cats here, the ones who have had some training in mindfulness. ~ Sue Baker
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How it Works: The Ladybird Book of the Cat by ... View Full Review
Can’t wait for it to get to that level of cold when this book will act as a comfort blanket all of its own. Another in Nigel Slater’s exceptional Diary formats it is a paen of praise to winter and its high festivals of Christmas and New Year, a cookery book yes but so much more, there is the garden, family stories, legends and the comfort of home. I love Autumn best and with my love for winter running out in late January this will be a valuable aid in extracting every last drop of winter ... View Full Review
I could just write something like gorgeous or sumptuous and leave it at that but perhaps I should elaborate on this paen of praise showcasing the best Railway architecture in Britain. It’s not all high Victorian, the book also includes the new – and glad I am to see we have some new architecture worthy of inclusion. And not all has been saved – think of the Euston Arch for one but there is enough here to spur thoughts of instant visits and appreciation of such gems as Glasgow and the unusual Art Deco Leamington Spa. Good linking ... View Full Review
A title that doesn’t lie, these are really good dog photos. Containing the work of some of the best animal photographers there are naturally many different approaches to photographing dogs, many of the pictures have the “aaah” factor, many show the beauty, the fun, the work of dogs and there are some here to tug the heart-strings – particularly the portraits of dogs marooned in rescue centres. An excellent introduction to the subject featuring photographers such as Elliott Erwitt and William Wegman. ~ Sue Baker
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The Dogist by ... View Full Review
A distillation of prescriptions given – and taken – on William Sieghart’s online Poetry Pharmacy. No harm to be got from these prescriptions, instead there is comfort, love, advice and experience aplenty. I was immediately taken by the poems of Hafiz, a C14 Persian poet, short sublime poems, had to google to find more so a poets index would have been useful. As anthologies such as this are useful springboards, short author biographies would too have been welcomed. Overall though, a calming collection of words for troubled souls and lovely to have a cloth bound book to treasure.&... View Full Review
An examination of 10 meals, not celebrated for any gourmet delights that might have been on show but for when they happened and who was at the dinner table. These meals changed history, starting with dinner on the eve of the Battle of Culloden through to Jimmy Carter’s peace brokering between Egypt and Israel. Accompanying the history, Chef Tony Singh has researched and recreated the meals to give a full picture of what was on the table at these momentous meetings. ~ Sue Baker
Like for Like ReadingA History of Food in 100 Recipes, William Sitwell £16.99 Paperback 352 ... View Full Review
