Buffy's Salon

In Praise of Spring Dresses

 

Sassy Jersey Dress by Boden

Spring provides us with an excellent opportunity to eschew jeans, trainers, shapeless tops and all the other less-than-pretty items we fall back on in winter, and remember again that we're women .

 

Marguerite Dress by Toast 

Modern fashion dictates a choice between a kind of grungy, unisex look or one which would not be out of place at a stripper joint.  Happily there are niches in the market which aspire to create dresses that are feminine, colourful and ladylike.

 

Dot Ruffle Front Dress by Cath Kidston

Of course, these dresses tend to be on the pricey side because of the expectation that only someone who is over 30 and prepared to spend a little more on quality clothing would be interested in dressing like a lady.  However, there are always the sales....and those of us who have dressmaking skills will find plenty to inspire us.

  

Princess Dress by Joules

Wearing a dress like this you can't help feeling like a woman, and you're likely to bring a little cheer into the hearts of everyone who is fed up of winter and looking forward eagerly to the gentle, caressing sunlight of Spring.

 

Jaipur Dress by Monsoon

Dresses like these can be worn with a T-shirt or long-sleeved top under them and a little cardigan for extra coverage.

A Book Meme

Woman Reading

I don't usually feel very inspired by memes, but a book meme is a different story (pun intended).

In 2003 the BBC asked everyone in Britain to nominate their favourite books.  They then listed the top 100 in order.  Allegedly the average person has only read six of these books.  (Note: there is more than one list circulating, probably because of confusion with the World Book Day survey, but I have just decided to go with the original list.)

You simply have to highlight the ones you have read, which hopefully will then add up to more than six!  I like the way that the list includes both adult and children's books.  Personally I still get a lot of joy out of reading books written for younger eyes than mine.  Maybe it is the lack of cynicism.

What's interesting about this list is that it includes a lot of classics mixed in with some more modern titles.  One wonders which of these more recent bestsellers will still feature on a list like this in twenty-five years.  Still, as a glance at modern culture in all its glory it's as good as any list.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Thanks to Katy Did What? for Blog meme.

What do modern women want?

My Home, Husbands and Wives Magazine, UK, 1934

"Maybe women have not evolved to the point where they want to work as long as men. Or maybe they don't want to become company women on an institutional track; maybe they'd rather work for themselves than keep grasping for that elusive Managing Director title. Or maybe they just value time spent with friends and family more than time spent on office warfare.

"Five years ago, you would often hear high-powered women fantasize that they would love a Wife, somebody to do the shopping, cooking, carpooling, so they could focus on work. Now the fantasy is more retro: They just want to be that Wife.

Maureen Dowd (New York Times -2000)

A More Caring Society

Kindness

Just before Christmas several papers reported the news that more babies are being born with Down's Syndrome than have been recorded since screening began.  This is being seen as a result of a more caring society which is increasingly receptive and open to people with this condition.  As a consequence women who find they are pregnant with babies with this genetic disorder are more inclined to go ahead with the birth.  (The alternative obviously being to abort the fetus once the pre-natal testing shows up the genetic abnormality.)

In Britain in 1989, when pre-natal screening was introduced, DS births fell from 717 a year to 594 in 2000.  It has since then increased to 749.

Originally it was thought that this upturn was simply a result of more older women having babies.  However, a survey of parents of children with Down's Syndrome asked them why they decided to go ahead with the pregnancy  and 35% said that they thought life and society had improved for people with DS.  One third were against abortion on principle.  25% already knew people with DS or a similar disability and this had influenced them to go ahead with the pregnancy.

The Chief Executive of the Down's Syndrome Institute said:

"When I and others had our babies it was a very different world – those with Down's syndrome were treated very differently. Now there is much greater inclusion and acceptance, with mainstream education having a huge role. We think this plays a part in the decisions parents make."

Even more enlightening than the reports are the comments that the general public have left here.   There are many from friends and family of people with DS which are very positive.  However, there are others which focus on the difficulties that are created for parents and society when someone is born with DS.  As one commentor said "More disabled children is not good news"; he sees them as only a burden.  This of course was the thinking behind the screening programme that was devised to "solve the problem" of DS through termination during pregnancy.

Reading those comments it seemed like there are two sorts of people in the world, the ones who are worried about anyone being a drain on our resources, and the ones who, as one commentor said, have the imagination and love to want the lives of any disabled person to be as happy and supported as possible.  

Perhaps the most interesting outcome of the survey was that most of the parents said that a major factor in going ahead with the pregnancy was that they could count on friends and family who would help and support them.  In other words, they were not expected to take on this heavy "burden" alone.  One of the saddest things that was reported was that of parents being worried sick about what would happen to their DS children when they had died.  Wouldn't it be good to know that vulnerable people would always be treasured by "society", and not just by their parents?  People who argue for termination because of the extra trouble and anxiety these children might cause are missing the point.  The abnormality lies with the lack of love and kindness in our society, not with the people with DS.

Quality Adaptations Part II: The novels of Mrs Gaskell

 

In my previous post I looked specifically at that most popular of adaptations, the novels of Jane Austen.  Perhaps it was the popular success of Ms Austen's masterpieces that encouraged the BBC to branch out and create adaptations of novels by the likes of Mrs Gaskell?  For many people these programmes have introduced them to classic stories they would never otherwise have found, not to mention they provide a fascinating insight to what life was like over one hundred years ago.

I do have a theory that part of the reason for this is that the Victorian novelists like Mrs Gaskell were not afraid to raise the subjects of morality, virtue and charity in a way that many modern writers for film and television, talented though they may be, fail to do.

In her novels Mrs Gaskell opened up Victorian society on all levels, providing much detail that is fascinating to the modern reader.  Although the society she writes about seems very conventional she was keen to examine contemporary issues and the role of women in a changing society.

Cranford is set in the 1840s and centres around a town which stands as a bastion against the busyness of the industrial revolution.  Rather than a specific story, this is more a collection of happenings that affect the everyday but disparate group that make up the denizens of Cranford.  The BBC adaptation in 2007 beautifully captured the humour, pathos and charm of the stories, and had an excellent cast including Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton, Julia McKenzie, Julia Sawalha and Philip Glenister.

North & South was set about ten years later and again looks at the effects of the growth of industrialisation on society.  Our heroine, Margaret is forced to move from the slower paced, natural beauty of the south of England to a polluted, poverty-stricken industrial town, up north.  At first she seems too sensitive to deal with the rigours and horrors about her, but with her strong notion of justice and her compassion for the poor she slowly becomes devoted to the people of the town.  Her care for the poor brings her into conflict with the local cotton mill-owner (Thornton) whom she misjudges, and much of the story is about how they overcome a series of misunderstandings until they are finally united.  The 2004 adaptation is faithful to these themes and Richard Armitage received much praise for his portrayal of Thornton, who at first appears cold and uncaring but slowly reveals himself as an honourable and emotional man.

Wives & Daughters is set in the 1830s and was Mrs Gaskell's last novel, actually written in the 1860s.  The story revolves around Molly Gibson whose widowed father is a doctor.  She is an only child, but when he remarries she has to welcome her selfish stepmother and her new stepsister, Cynthia into the family.  The two step-sisters become good friends and both represent a type of young Victorian woman: Molly is innocent, dutiful and kindly whereas Cynthia is worldy, rebellious and sophisticated.  Most of the story is concerned with various secrets and convuluted romances, and naturally both girls "fall" for the same young man.  When adapting the novel in 1999 Andrew Davies said it should appeal to modern audiences because it is about second families, common nowadays because of divorce and remarriage and in Victorian England because of the higher death rate leaving widows and widowers who would often remarry.

Has anyone seen all three of these adaptations and which is your favourite? 

Grace at the Table Part II: Entertaining

The Dinner Party

Having your friends around your kitchen table is one of the best things in life...By entertaining you live in your house to the full.  It creates an atmosphere the likes of which nothing else can, and it allows you to hang out with your friends in your own environment.  Inviting people to eat at your table is the ultimate way to seal a friendship as offering people food and drink when they come to your door is one of the most basic customs of hospitality.
Rita Konig in "Domestic Bliss"

Entertaining people can be as formal or as informal as you like.   Sometimes a friend comes round unexpectedly and you end up eating pasta off your laps, at other times you want a full dinner party which can take weeks to plan.  The most important thing to remember is that it should be an enjoyable occasion for both you and your guests.  There are a number of occasions you can issue invitations for:

Lunch
Eating in the middle of the day at the weekend feels more informal than a dinner party.  In "How to Eat" Nigella Lawson differentiates between Saturday and Sunday lunch.An unfussy lunch sprawled out on a Saturday definitely doesn't demand culinary high jinks.  She suggests a kind of indoor picnic.  Don't worry about pudding.  You just need some tubs of good ice-cream...or buy a tart from a good French patisserie.  On the other hand Proper Sunday lunch is everything contemporary cooking is not.  Meat-heavy, hostile to innovation, resolutely formalised, it as much a ritual as a meal...it is impervious to considerations of health or fashion; it is about solidity, the family, the home.  Traditional Sunday lunch, of course, means a roast, usually of beef.

Afternoon Tea
Served between 3.00pm and 5.00pm this meal ideally includes "finger" sandwiches, scones with preserves and clotted cream and a mixture of cakes and pastries all served on a three tiered cake stand.  A range of teas should be available. 

Dinner
The evening meal, usually involving three or more courses and the most formal form of entertaining.

Supper
Eaten in the late evening, for example, after visiting the theatre

Formal entertaining, rules for the Hostess (assuming she is the main cook)

1. Try to arrange things so that you don't spend the whole time cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. 
2. Make sure you know your guests likes and dislikes, whether they are vegetarian, lactose intolerant etc. 
3. If you have a disaster try to keep it in proportion, don't start crying in front of your guests or try to hide something obvious, but rather laugh it off (or at least smile it off).
4. Don't push second helpings on anyone.
5. Don't start clearing the table before everyone has finished eating that course.  Never scrape leftovers from one plate onto another in front of the diners.
6. Try not to order people around too much, but rather let them relax and be spontaneous.  For example, some people might like to stay at the table for coffee or mint tea whereas others will prefer to move back into the lounge.  Let them choose.

Rules for the Host (assuming the hostess has taken the burden of the cooking)

1. As guests arrive the host should fix them a drink.  It makes life easier for them if he offers specific choices.  He keeps an eye on their drinks throughout the evening, offering them top-ups as necessary.
2. If there are guests the host should seat people.  Offer guests the best seats.  Preferably women should be seated before men and the seating should alternate men and women. 
3. If there is a guest of honour they should sit on the hostess's right if male or the host's right if female.
4. If you are serving port the host pours it first for the person on his right then for himself, and then passes to the left. 
5. If the meal is a long one and you have several people you could consider between courses asking all the men to move one or two place to their right in order to ensure people get a chance to talk to everyone.
6. When people leave, the host should fetch their coat and see them out of the door.  If any women are on their own and it's dark it is appropriate that the host would walk them to their car or taxi.