by Pat L. (PitterPat)

Julia Child inspired many Americans to try new cooking techniques over her many years on TV. Julia didn’t learn to cook until she was in her 30’s. She became interested in cooking after marrying Paul Child. In 1948 they moved to France, where Paul worked for the United States Information Agency. Julia fell in love with French food immediately. She attended the famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and started teaching other American women how to cook French dishes. In the early 1950’s she started writing a cookbook with 2 friends. That book later became “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volumes one and two”.

Decades later she worked with her great-nephew, Alex Prud’homme to write “My Life in France”. It was published in 2006, 2 years after Julia died. This is a wonderful book told in Julia’s voice about the time the Childs spent in France. She describes in wonderful detail special meals they were served, the apartment they lived in, and the French people. Cooking and teaching became Julia’s passion and you can feel it through this book. You also get a glimpse into Julia and Paul’s marriage. They were truly partners and soul mates.

Another book that will give you more insight into Julia is “As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto” by Joan Reardon. Avis Devoto is the person who took Julia’s cookbook manuscript to publishers in the United States. Their letters reveal how much work Julia spent in perfecting each recipe that she wanted published. They also talked about politics and personal situations. Some of it I had a hard time relating to because Avis came from a life that involved hired help and lots of cocktail parties. I felt she wasn’t really in touch with the average housewife of the 1950’s. But again you see Julia’s passion in her letters about the cookbook manuscript.

If you have ever seen “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”, you know that the recipes are extremely long and detailed. Julia wanted the books to teach cooks techniques not just a list of ingredients and simple cooking directions. After reading the two books about Julia, I revisited a copy of “Mastering” and had a new appreciation for how the recipes were written. I realized that Julia wanted to be in my kitchen helping me cook. She wanted everyone to enjoy the process of cooking.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a big fan of Julia Child, I highly recommend these books. You may also walk away thinking about what are you passionate about in life.

Bon Appétit!

Jeri Westerson is one of our very favorite authors here on the PBS Blog. She writes medieval mysteries with an enigmatic, flawed, sexy, and very different protagonist. His name is Crispin Guest and he’s a disgraced knight turned detective on the mean streets of fourteenth century London. Her latest book, Blood Lance was released in October.

Blood Lance is the read along book this month in the Historical Fiction Discussion Forum here at PaperBackSwap. She will be joining us there for a Q&A session tomorrow, 11/14. Come join us! Here is a direct link to the Forum LINK

Fog, a constant drizzle, gray. The miserable cold and dank of London conjures in our minds shadowy figures of Jack the Ripper or the scurrilous deeds of Mr. Hyde. But go back further before street lamps, before the Victorians cast their gloomy sway over the city. A hundred, two hundred, six hundred years before London and Westminster melded together, and you have descended into the shadowy realm of fourteenth century London where my medieval detective dwells.

Some cities are made for crime. Chicago, Los Angeles, New York. But I would add London. There’s too much atmosphere, too much history to leave it out. Add in the violence of the medieval mindset and you’ve really got something.

Of course, the streets and narrow lanes of the medieval mayhem I love so well are long gone. London was devastated by fires and simply by the whims of Newer, Better, Bigger as time marched on. The medieval London of my darkest imaginings no longer exists. A few foundations, a few churches, but the rest is lost to the name of Progress. Maps serve to give me the claustrophobic feel of constricted alleys and a puzzle of lanes. In fact, one can lay these maps on the Google Earth version of the present day London and nearly match some of it exactly. Even some of the names remain the same. My fictional detective, Crispin Guest, a disgraced knight turned detective and down on his luck, frequents a tavern to forget his troubles, which is located on Gutter Lane…a street that still exists by that name. I love that!

But there are still a few locations that can renew your sense of time and place. One obvious structure is the Tower of London. The outer walls and the White Tower within are relatively the same, sans the murky moat that used to surround it, and walking under the arches and sharp teeth of the portcullises you can get a true sense of its medieval origins, if you can ignore the gift shop signs and colorfully dressed tourists. It began life as the castle of William the Conqueror and as a residence of each monarch after him until digs in Westminster were built. Only later did it become the dreaded place of imprisonment for London’s elite.

I could name so many places that no longer exist or have been changed so radically from its Victorian counterpart that it is almost not worth the mention. London’s city walls, for instance—the square mile that delineated ancient London—have been obliterated by “new” buildings from the Georgian and Victorian periods and our modern time, and it is only with a helpful handheld guide that you can find its remnants. But a walk into a few structures might bring the medieval back to mind. The Temple Church of the Knights Templar, St. Bartholomew the Great, the Guildhall. Then there is the wonderfully intact Westminster Hall, the great hall that was part of the medieval Westminster Palace, whose footprint is now covered by the Parliament buildings. And, of course, Westminster Abbey, which got a brush up of remodeling in Crispin’s day in the fourteenth century. But remember, those are in what was the city of Westminster, not the London of old.

It’s a good thing I can visit medieval London in my imagination. I can well see the crooked, narrow lanes, the towering two and three-story shops and houses precariously leaning into the street. Running gutters wending their way down muddy avenues. Smoke from countless hearths curling along slate and tile roofs. Geese and sheep being herded down from the countryside to the markets. Horses pulling carts. Merchants calling their wares with their carved wordless signs hanging above their heads. The sights, the smells, the sounds.

And then, deep in the shadows, a dagger flashes and a body falls to the mud. That’s my kind of place.

Jeri Westerson writes the Crispin Guest Medieval Noir series. Her latest is BLOOD LANCE, set in London and on London Bridge. Find book discussion guides and an exciting series book trailer on her website www.JeriWesterson.com.

Thank you Jeri! You are the Best!