Author: Estelle

I am Estelle, a small person who lives in Liverpool. I love all books apart from "The World According to Clarkson". Also very keen on comedy, cooking, octopods and other small people.

Categories
1900-1949 Food & Drink

How to Cook Vegetables, 1930

The Essex Cookery Book, 1930

Some possibly useful information on how to cook vegetables from The Essex Cookery Book, 1930.

I’ve never heard of the dark/light theory of cooking vegetables. Vegetables grown in the dark should be cooked in the dark (i.e. covered with a lid) and vice versa, or so it says.

The Essex Cookery Book, 1930
The Essex Cookery Book, 1930

More carrot destruction here with the timings. Not quite as bad as the advice to cook them for two and a half hours from 1910 (see below) but people apparently really liked carrot mush back then. Also – in what universe does it take 15 minutes to cook spinach? You can see why we got our reputation for soggy veg.

The Essex Cookery Book, 1930
The Essex Cookery Book, 1930

Previous post here on Mrs Rea’s Cookery Book from 1910 – https://skittishlibrary.co.uk/the-good-the-bad-and-the-calfs-head/

Categories
Victorian Victorian Slang

Victorian Slang of the Week – Quockerwodger

The Slang Dictionary, 1865

One of my top ten best words this week – Quockerwodger. It almost doesn’t matter what it means, really. I’m appreciating the lip-exercising qualities of it right now. Go on, say it out loud.

It’s also good because you get to use it to insult politicians. It means a kind of marionette puppet, and, by extension, it came to mean a politician who was having his strings pulled by someone else.

The Slang Dictionary, 1865
The Slang Dictionary, 1865

And, in keeping with my personal theory that anything can be illustrated by a sketch from Monty Python, Fry and Laurie or the Armando Iannucci Shows, here is a demonstration of a Quockerwodger and Quockerwodgee (not sure what the puppet master was called. This seems as good a word as any).

 

Categories
1950-1999 Women

The Daily Mail Annual for Girls, 1959

The Daily Mail Annual for Girls

Before the Sidebar of Shame, the Daily Mail had a sideline in annuals for boys and girls. Enid Blyton was a regular contributor of stories to them, and they ran from the 1940s to the 60s.

This is a feature from the 1959 edition, on Fashion for Girls, tips for a teenager’s guide to stylish dressing. Well, not tips so much as a kind of stern bossiness about what the girl of 1959 should be looking like. But what’s new?

Remember, “This tomboy stuff is really rather silly….” And, “In no time, you will find that you are a tidier girl, and one whom people will like much more than before.” And don’t forget, “You must learn to hold in your tummy…”

It was the age of the manmade material, and mentions “the wonder fabric….orlon”, which was the original term for what we now call acrylic.

I love the 1950s design aesthetic and it is beautifully illustrated by its author, Dora Shackell. Looking her up, she also wrote the book Young Girl’s Guide to Intelligent Living. Well, that sounds entirely up my street. Hello, book wishlist!

On balance, I love the 50s look of this so much that I think I’m just going to forget its provenance…

The Daily Mail Annual for Girls
The Daily Mail Annual for Girls
Categories
1950-1999 Music

David Essex is Sad, 1976

Fab 208 Annual, 1976

How to live up to the expectations of David Essex in 1976.

From Radio Luxembourg’s official teen annual.

Categories
Victorian Victorian Slang

Victorian Slang of the Week – B Flats and F Sharps

The Slang Dictionary, 1865

Victorian musical slang for household creepy-crawlies – B Flats for bugs and F Sharps for fleas. Maybe they’re musical terms because you make a noise if you’re bitten? Or maybe it was just being funny. It does sound quite a music hall-y kind of thing.

I like that the word “Foxed” on the second page is included. It (still) means brown marks that develop on old books and the page itself is an illustration of it.

Categories
Victorian Women

Victorian Childcare, 1891

The Mother's Companion, 1891

A subject close to home for me right now – childcare and nurseries. Today it’s my first day back at work as the beautiful dream that is maternity leave has come to an end. My baby daughter and I are beginning the wrenching apart process as she starts nursery for the first time and I inevitably spend the morning phoning up to check she’s ok.

But reading this 1891 account in The Mother’s Companion by children’s author Jennie Chappell about Mrs Hilton’s crèche, a day nursery that had been running in the East End of London since 1871, rather puts things in perspective. The highly emotive descriptions of poor, neglected babies is very Victorian in its sentimentality, but I’m sure also contains a good deal of truth. The crèche was catering for infants who would otherwise be left alone in the house while their mothers had to go to work, or were unfit in some way, or else perhaps left in the care of their only slightly older siblings.

A beautiful picture of the day nursery is included, which must have seemed a wonderfully warm and safe alternative to the overcrowded living spaces a lot of working class people lived in in the East End (apart from the one kid who’s alarmingly looking half throttled by a loop of material).

Mrs Hilton inspired people in other big towns across the country to start their own day nurseries and “public cradles”. And on her top floor she kept a kind of sanitarium for sick and dying children, where their parents could visit by night. I think she deserves to be better known than she is. We’ve heard of the big shot Victorian male philanthropists but some people like Mrs Hilton were also doing work than must have added immeasurably to peoples lives. I’m all emotional right now anyway, but I think I have something in my eye…..

Categories
1950-1999 Games Music

Friday Fun – “Which is the boy for you?”, 1976

A quiz! From 1976 and the slightly Yewtree-tastic annual of Radio Luxembourg’s official magazine Fab 208.

A little insight into mid-70s teen dating. Although the girl who previously owned this book was a bit undecided about her choice of boy.

Which is the boy for you?

Fab208 Annual, 1976
Fab208 Annual, 1976
Fab208, 1976
Fab208, 1976
Categories
Victorian Victorian Slang

Victorian Slang of the Week – Bladder of Lard

The Slang Dictionary, 1865

Another insult (seeing as a good quarter of The Slang Dictionary is insults).

Bladder of Lard – an affectionate term for the baldy man in your life.

Slang-Dictionary-bladder-of-lard

 

That Naked Video music is the 80s summed up in a sound for me.

 

 

Categories
Ephemera Victorian Women

What Is There To Prevent a Woman From Enjoying a Good Book, 1891

The Mother's Companion, 1891

A woman after my own heart, sodding off the darning for a bit of a read.

A beautiful picture from The Mother’s Companion, 1891. I’m 40 and I bet she’s around that age too. Although with about 10 more children, I expect.

I feel like this should be my avatar for everything from now on.

The Mother's Companion, 1891
The Mother’s Companion, 1891
Categories
Food & Drink

Book Wishlist – “Dining with Debbie: A Magical Touch”

Debbie McGee

Okay, cards on the table (ha), I am a big fan of Paul Daniels. I loved his magic and variety show as a kid (everyone of a certain age remembers smoke-bubble-blowing-man, I’m sure). I had his magic books, I put on little magic shows for my parents, I watched Wizbit.

I love the Louis Theroux programme on Paul and Debbie McGee – you can tell they’re made for each other despite the cynicism when they got together:

So, the fact I can’t combine my love of cookery with my love of magic by getting hold of a copy of Debbie McGee’s dinner party book “Dine with Debbie: A Magical Touch” is maddening. It’s out of print and nowhere to be found!

To tide me over, I’m watching this clip of Debbie and one of the recipes. Sweet, appley, cheesey toast (cut into triangles if you’re entertaining, mind).