blooming heck

Or 'blummin' heck', as Simon says, in what must be some sort of throw-back phrase from his youth in Humberside. Thank you for all your comments, although 'comment' is an unsatisfactory word for the wonderful feedback, stories, requests, suggestions, and commercial nuggets that were left on the previous post. I know it's been a while since I've spoken very directly here as life is very full of real life at the moment and the blog isn't the place I come to talk about that (the kitchen table is), but I am  making plans to recover what I feel is missing and what I have been missing. So I am absolutely delighted that so many readers here like The Gentle Art of Domesticity enough to want to see it on the shelves again. And so is Simon, who has read every comment and has barely suppressed the 'I told you so' I do and don't want to hear.

Jane, my agent ('Agent Jane' to my editor at Lerner Books, which makes her sound much more Machiavellian than she is, which she isn't at all) is on the case as well. We are considering different routes (thanks for your advice about rights etc, which are all sorted) and, as I think the world of publishing is changing rapidly, there are now plenty of interesting options and even more to come. This, together with Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer which is another book which some of you also miss and would like to see reprinted (me, too), means Jane and I have our work cut out. Blummin' heck, we need to get cracking.

[Quinces from the tree in garden acting as the most fragrant, sweet-smelling air freshener ever. I'm not a fan of pot-pourri or spray fresheners, but would happily bottle the smell of quince and use it liberally round the house. Unfortunately, the real thing only lasts for a few brief weeks in autumn.]

Comments

[christy]

I can't believe it's out of print. I just LOVE your book!

[Ann]

Good luck! My kids just love your photography too - hours spent imagining what to do with buttons, playmobil. Hope you're all settling in to your new routines.

[Zoe]

Good luck! I remember reading a few pages of Cherry Cake in a Cornish Waterstones one summer and my husband talked me out of buying it because we were on our way to the beach in the rain - of course now I am kicking myself.

I would go and buy a second hand version of both books but I will hold off with the hope of being one of the first to buy your self-published editions.

[Hen]

Quince do smell completely divine. Why are they always so hard to find, I wonder...
Good news that you are going to get the book "sorted" and bring pleasure to many more folks.

[oxslip]

Good plan, delighted to hear it.
A suggestion for the quinces: I made quince ratafia to Matthew Fort's adapted Jane Grigson recipe in the Guardian, still online if you search. It was lovely and scented, though his recommendation of rum over a clear alcohol was a little too heavy for me, this year I intend using vodka instead. It has great Elizabethan ingredients like mace, the only drawback is that once bottled it has a strong resemblance to a urine sample.

[Tola]

i dont yet have Cherry Cake, im hoping to be able to get a copy. i love my Domesticity book, even if it is the American version. i love it so much that i bought the quilting and the knitting books on the fact that i loved the first one so much. i still dont quilt, and probably wont start; but i love the book.

[Carol]

Since reading your last post I've managed to buy a copy of the American version (at a reasonable price too) but I would still buy a new British one and I hope your plans to republish come to fruition.
By 'eck lass that's a reet gud plan.
Carol xx

[Teish]

I'd love to get my hands on Cherry Cake, Ginger Beer! I'm in the US, so it can be harder to get my hands on UK versions of books! Will you possibly be selling to those of us across the pond? :-)

[Carie]

My fingers and toes are tightly crossed for a reprint - I love my copy and I love to give it as a present.

Thank you for signing my copy today, I really enjoyed your talk.

[Paty Z in Mexico]

Yes please!!! I don´t have cherry cake adn ginger beer and would love to have it, specially if it is an UK version.

[Maria David Castro]

Quinces are lovely! In Portugal you can find them everywhere at this time of the year and people traditionally make "marmalada" from it (despite the name, not that similar to the English marmalade). It's a preserve that you turn into a mash. After cooling down you can slice it with a knife and eat it all year long... My mother also makes jam with them, stopping the cooking a bit before the fruit gets too soft and adding cloves to the mix of fruit and sugar...

[Mary de B]

I have Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer and love the seed cake! In it, though, you say that Titty complains about how hard it is to wash egg off the plates, when it really is Susan who says that. So you must do a second pass at that, to change that one word -- and that is all you should change! Otherwise, it is perfect!
Mary, who's loved Titty and Susan for 45 years!

[D A Nelson]

Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer is an excellent book (I love it and frequently re-read it). Plus it has an excellent chocolate cake recipe! It is a huge hit with my family. Have I said that before?? Oh yes! Many, many times. I have to make it again cos it's a bribe for my three-year-old to stop wetting himself (he's at the 'oh I forgot!' stage)...and it's a bribe that works! Hope you get both books back out again so I can buy the Gentle Art of Domesticity, which I hadn't gotten round to yet. Sigh.
Dawn xx

[Thrifty Household]

The smell of quinces is divine- we have a bowl full on our kitchen table that fill the air with, well, quince fragrance- there's nothing quite like that wonderful, wonderful smell...

[Pom Pom]

Hmmmm. Well, my copy doesn't look Americanized and I'll go look at it right now because I thought for sure it had the marshmallow heart.

[Frances]

Jane, there were so many comments on your prior post that said what I wished to say, but they said it more eloquently.

I am glad that you are giving serious consideration to getting that Gentle Art book (UK version) back in publication. I do have the American version and feel I am reading a slightly diluted version of your charming creation.

Quince! Another treat that quickly disappears. I like the theme. This special autumn fruit with the delightful scent and your original inspirational book.

Best wishes.

[Cheryl]

Hi Jane, I wanted to add that I too would love to see your book (and books) made available.
Here on the West Coast of Canada your books have been extremely hard to find in bookstores, ie virtually non-existent. And to read that some of them are out of print has made me gasp. I haven't even had the chance to see them!!
I would especially love the UK versions, prefer it actually, since the spellings are what we share here in Canada.
Regards, Cheryl

[Jude Patrick]

Hi,Jane. I'm so glad you're republishing the Gentle Art... Any chance of it being out before Christmas?
Thank you so much also for the Spitalfields Hse coloured glass photos. The colours are so pleasing - why not publish those too? They'd make lovely cards.
When I was little, an aunt had a large landing window made of stained glass that captured my imagination as each colour transformed her garden into a different place.
Hope you're looking through rose-tinted glasses today. Thank you for lifting my spirits again. Love,Jude

[kathryn]

I've been so eager to see Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer - I'm thrilled to no end that it will be reprinted. I still have the Gentle Art on Display in my living room, I love it!

[Louise]

Exciting times. And your quinces look a lot lovelier than mine - all windfalls and pocked and waiting patiently on the windowsill for someone to make them into jelly (probably). A friend made little apple and quince pies, topped with chopped hazelnuts which were v good indeed.