I spend a lot of time with writers working on what might one day be their first book. We drill into what they want to say, to whom and why, and we usually find a lot more story than they expected along the way.
Pulling it out from where it was hiding is very often a deeply emotional experience. It’s almost always about family, and very often about a grandmother. Finding the words to retie the apron strings that held together so much more than a flour-splattered pinny can be life changing. Imagine what it feels like to have that book published.
And what happens then?
We’re not just writing books at my retreats, we’re changing worlds. Why stop at one book when you’ve found your writing voice? When you’ve found what you want to say, and to whom, why wouldn’t you have plenty more where that came from?
But how do you do it again? How do you build yourself into a food writer?
It’s publication every Thursday somewhere in the world. This week, it’s Georgie Hayden’s, and she’ll be on Cooking the Books talking about Greekish, the other side of her Greek-Cypriot food writer soul later this week.
I’ve talked to her about most of her books over the years, although I missed her first, Stirring Slowly: recipes to restore and revive in 2016 which followed the tragedy of her stillborn child, 38.5 weeks into her pregnancy. We talked about Taverna, the story of her grandparents' Greek Cypriot taverna in Tufnell Park on the delicious. podcast and the riches she found as she explored her heritage. With Nistissima, she took a deep dive into the many vegan recipes of the Mediterranean through its various orthodox religions. ‘I can’t believe no-one’s given me a PhD for that,’ she laughs on CTB this week.
In hindsight, it’s a clear narrative arc from slowing to standstill and finding that the food from home is the only sustenance that heals, to Greekish, an exploration of the side of her heritage that’s all about the sunshine. I wonder what she’ll write next. I bet she’ll be peeling off the next layer, and taking us with her to somewhere that right now she hasn’t even been to herself.
Peeling the onion: it’s the way to create an oevre.
Earlier today, I interviewed Amber Guiness whose first book A House Party in Tuscany is a nostalgic return to the childhood home where she grew up. Again, tragedy is at its heart, but it’s the food and the house that restores her, an elegant, artistic arc of story that is as satisfying to read as the recipes are to cook. Where could she go from here?
Well, on holiday, of course. Taking her reader with her in Italian Coastal, she retraces the holidays of her childhood, pre-tragedy when life was golden, down the Tyrrhenian coast from la Maremma through the Bay of Naples to Northern Sicily where myths and legends live, stopping at road sides and cafes to eat the food where the land meets the sea. “When I was a child’, she tells me on the podcast, ‘I was only thinking of sand castles’, but the voyage of rediscovery as an adult, the smell and sounds of her Bohemian parents’ supper parties in makeshift camping kitchens pop the memories which pour onto the page. Layers of memories she didn’t even know were there.
What’s next for Amber? She has an idea. Lifting the dust covers off her school days in Tuscany, she’s found treasures through the prism of food. Listen to the end of Thursday’s episode to find out.
We’ll be getting out the spades in a couple of weeks at the next How to Cook a Book writing retreat, which is fully booked. But I’ve just launched an online version here on Substack with a Chat space about writing, ideas, issues - whatever we want to talk about for my paid subscribers. Do join us as we break new ground.
I’m also offering monthly one-on-ones if you feel you need some help with the dig. Email gilly@gillysmith.com for details.
My grandmother was a wonderful cook , she had been taught in France in the 1930s and jolly nice too. More importantly my father says in the late 1940s she was queen of the local black market in her part of Cheshire and when she couldn’t get what she wanted In Cheshire she would ring the buyer at the Harrods meat department and get him to produce it , then send it on the train to Crewe and told the station manager at Frodshsm to stop the train and collect her parcel . She was a very strong willed woman
So enjoyed our one to one session this morning! Great to forward plan and for me to feel like I am making progress- it can feel a bit lonely at times. It is good to share, reset and restore! Thanks Gilly x