Food, fruit and Tainted Tree

In the last couple of days, I’ve heard comments on the radio that are very much in tune with my way of thinking. One was from Gordon Ramsay saying something to the effect that we should buy fruit in season in the UK. Now obviously that isn’t always possible. We would never have bananas or oranges if we weren’t able to import them, but as far as strawberries are concerned, there is a vast difference between the ripe English strawberries in May/June and the tasteless stringy things that are sold in the supermarket for the ten months of the year. I have to admit that I do buy the out of season ones every now and then - sometimes when the grandchildren are visiting; they like red fruits and sometimes just to see if they’ve improved. A couple of days ago, I saw some in a local cake shop. They were in a papier mache carton, and I suspected they were the first English - maybe brought on in a poly-tunnel. They were delicious; they reminded me of how strawberries ought to taste. The following day, because were low on fruit and I was passing the Co-op, I bought a carton in there. What a difference. Back to a Spanish tasteless variety.

The other thing I heard related to the amount of food wasted; thrown away and a criticism of young people who have never put up with food shortages and who feel that anything left on one day should be thrown in the dustbin. I often cook with a view to freezing part of a meal. I have sliced cooked meats in the freezer, and if part of a casserole or soup is left over, I freeze that too. I keep small plastic cartons and I really appreciate them when I can’t think of anything to cook. And I sometimes recycle yesterday’s vegetables.

I’ve had the first comments about Tainted Tree from my brother-in-law, who telephoned to ask me to send a second copy for someone who’s interested. He said he was about one third of the way through and enjoying it.

However, Janice Windle, the artist who designed the cover has written a fantastic critique on her blog. I hope she doesn’t mind me reproducing it here, because I’m thrilled with it. Thank you Jan, so much.

‘Well, I know you'll say I have an axe to grind, and I have to declare an interest because I designed its cover, but I have to write this to anyone who will listen - Jackie Luben's "Tainted Tree" is a real humdinger of a book (excuse my American). Jackie was very secretive about the plot and never let me read past the third chapter while I was doing the art work, so I've had to wait till now to read the whole thing. I'd begun it midweek, having had a nice posting at a school that finishes its day at 2.30pm. This morning I simply couldn't put the novel down. The pace of the second half, in particular, is incredible, and you're rushed along from high to low, good news to bad news, from place to place, along with the central character. It had me in tears some of the time and wishing I WAS Addie, the main character, at other points (she does meet some very nice chaps, all very different and all interesting)

And you find yourself sharing thoughts with English people, Americans, people from the past and from the present, and seeing problems of family and love from all kinds of perspectives. OK, it's probably more a women's read than a man's - but who am I to be so sexist as to think that men don't enjoy reading about love and family relationships? At times it reminded me a little of Sebastian Faulkes' "Birdsong" in feeling - though the theme is different - and I know that book has plenty of male readers.

It's one of those books where you get two-for-one, too - a story within a story. Jackie has done her research very thoroughly. With her heroine, we read a diary written by someone who like me grew up in the 1960's, who gives a first hand account of hearing the news of John Kennedy's assassination (I always remember that moment, as most people my age probably do), the problems of sexual mores and contraception issues that we struggled with - and takes us again to the student parties of our far off youth. And that is interleaved with the ups and downs of a modern romance. The cultural differences between Britain and America are in there too, seen from an American perspective. Running through the book like a connecting thread is a puzzle that the heroine has to solve in the near present (the book is set in the 1990's).

Jackie is an author of great sensitivity and she tells a compelling story, with a lot of humour, compassion and a wonderful sense of pace and style. I don't think I've given too much away - you have to read it to enjoy the complex and fascinating plot.’