Peter Henry tells us about his rewarding role as a volunteer with Schoolreaders… Perhaps you could sign up to change lives, too?
Schoolreaders is a national children’s literacy charity which helps children to catch up on their reading by recruiting, training and placing volunteers into primary schools in their local area.
I am happily retired after a successful career however; I can truthfully say that nothing I did in my professional life seems as worthwhile and satisfying as watching the children I read with improve their literacy.
Why is this so important? One in four children leave primary school unable to read to the expected standard.
This means they cannot fully access secondary education and only one in 10 of these children will get a GCSE in English and Maths. This can severely diminish their life chances. One in seven adults in England (7.1 million) are functionally illiterate so cannot read instructions on a medicine label, sit a driving theory test or fill in a job application form. That is why helping children to improve their literacy at primary level, has never been so important.
“Nothing I did in my professional life seems as worthwhile and satisfying as watching the children I read with improve their literacy.”
I volunteer in a local infants’ school and my role is to focus on those children, especially those from more disadvantaged backgrounds, who need a little extra help learning to read. Fortunately, one thing of which you can be sure is that all children aged between five and seven are eager to learn and great fun to be with!
I, like many other Schoolreaders volunteers, could share a great many heart-warming stories. These include the boy who, for over a year, had really struggled, then one day was comprehending sentences and asking questions about the book, to the girl who not only reads the stories, but gives each character a different voice. I always return home from school with a spring in my step!
We are always in need of readers especially as more and more schools are asking for our help, which is provided absolutely free. So, if what you have read here has inspired you to think about joining us, and you can commit to an hour a week during term-time for a year, the next step is easy – please just visit School Readers to learn more.
Musician Paloma Faith tells us about her new break-up album The Glorification of Sadness ahead of her UK tour which starts this month
Q. Hello Paloma; congratulations on your album, your best yet! Are you happy with it?
“Thank you. Well, yes but it’s difficult! I’m the sort of person who takes any sort of success with a pinch of salt… When people say ‘oh it’s really great’ you never know whether that’s going to translate into popularity or streaming figures.”
Q. Do you have imposter syndrome?
“Yeah and I think it’s part of what drives me. We live in a real era of isolation; it’s all internet or social media-led and quite confusing. I’m not quite sure what’s real and what isn’t. I look at my following of 800,000 and then I look at peers of mine, who have 2 milllion and they don’t sell as many records. So I tend to be a bit blinkered and just go: ‘oh I’m gonna give the best show that I can’.”
Q. Do you think women have to play a role to win popularity?
“It’s funny, I didn’t announce my break-up but when the press reported it all the comments underneath were either ‘she’s a bloody handful’ or ‘I’m sorry he cheated on you’. It’s so weird that people think in those two narrow-minded terms and neither one is correct. As a woman either you’re a victim, and if you’ve got kids with them you’re expected to stay and suffer, or you’re perceived as this nightmare femme fatale character. I don’t think I’m either! So it’s wrong on both counts. There’s the expression of sadness [on this album] and remorse and vulnerability but also there’s a lot of empowerment, standing up for myself and saying this isn’t for me. In this way society needs to catch up. Quite often I listen to songs by women and they’re celebrated when they express vulnerability or victimhood but not so much when they express their strength.”
Q. You were moved by something Madonna said…
“Yes, Madonna says the most controversial thing she did was to stick around & I relate! A woman’s longevity is always under attack more than a man’s. I’m lucky; I’ve always looked quite young for my age, partly because I don’t do the injectables that, I think, make people look old. I hope to stick around!”
Q. Who would be your dream collaborators, alive or dead?
“I think I’d like to stick with the people who are still alive, please! I would love to work with SZA and Miley Cyrus.”
“Performing is my favourite thing to do and the only time I’m not anxious”
Q. How do you take care of your mental health?
“I do exercise and I go to therapy. I’ve done EMDR [eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing] and think it’s really good. One thing I’m learning more recently in my life is that avoidance or distraction mean your issues just come back to bite you in the bum. You can choose to address & face your issues and own up to who you are or else you’re just prolonging the agony.”
Q. Do you like being on tour and will you take your children on this one?
“I’ll take my youngest but the oldest is in school so she can only come for the dates in the Easter holidays; she’s gutted about it and has real FOMO! I love touring. I get a bit nervous beforehand but performing is my favourite thing to do and the only time I’m not anxious.”
Q. Are you looking for love?
“I tried dating for a bit and it just feels difficult to navigate when you’ve got children. The last time I was single I didn’t have any kids and I wouldn’t ever put anyone before my children. And I just don’t have the tolerance I used to have. When we as women are looking to pursue relationships and we don’t have kids, we compromise a lot. People keep talking to me now about compromise but I think ‘oh f*** off with your platitudes, I don’t have to compromise, I’d rather be on my own’. Maybe I am a nightmare woman after all, haha! You know better than you did when you were younger that you can do it without anyone.”
Paloma Faith is on tour including the Hexagon in Reading on 3rd April and New Theatre Oxford on 14th May as well as starring at Southampton Summer Sessions on 28th June. Visitpalomafaith.com
We’re sharing a taste of Gennaro’s Verdure: Big and bold recipes to pack your plate with veg by Gennaro Contaldo (Pavilion Books).
Arancini di funghi; filled mushroom balls
(makes eight)
These filled mushrooms may seem a little fiddly to make but, believe me, they are well worth the effort! Once filled, the mushrooms are pressed together to form a ball or, as I’ve called them in Italian, arancini (little oranges). I like to serve them with a selection of salads and pickles. You can easily make these vegetarian by omitting the pork and Parmesan by substituting with extra breadcrumbs and chopped mushrooms.
Ingredients:
16 small-medium chestnut or white mushrooms (approx. 500g/1lb 2oz), wiped clean
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
knob of butter
100g (3½oz) minced pork
Two sage leaves, finely chopped
4 tsp white wine
50g (1¾oz) ricotta
30g (1oz) grated Parmesan
plain flour, for dusting
Three eggs, lightly beaten
abundant dried breadcrumbs, enough
to coat the mushrooms
abundant vegetable oil, for frying
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and, using a small spoon, very carefully remove as much of the interior (gills) as possible without tearing the mushrooms. Finely chop the stalks and combine with the gills.
Heat the olive oil and butter in a small frying pan, add the chopped mushrooms and stir-fry for a couple of minutes over a medium heat until softened. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Replace the frying pan on the heat, add the minced pork and sage and stir-fry until the meat is well sealed. Season with salt and pepper, then add the wine, stir and allow to evaporate. Add the cooked mushrooms to the pan and cook for a minute, then take off the heat, allow to cool, then stir through the ricotta and Parmesan.
Fill the mushrooms with this mixture. Join two mushrooms together, pressing well, then coat in flour, dip in beaten egg and repeat to double-coat. Finally, coat in breadcrumbs.
Heat plenty of vegetable oil in a deep, heavy-based pan over a medium/highheat until hot, then deep-fry the mushroom balls for about four minutes until golden brown. A deep-fat fryer is ideal for this if you have one!
Using a slotted spoon, lift the mushroom balls out of the oil, drain well on kitchen paper to soak up the excess oil and then serve immediately.
Recipe 2:
Torta di carote e mandorle – carrot & almond cake
(serves eight)
Delicately light and healthy, this easy carrot cake would be perfect with a morning coffee or at teatime. I like to use the Italian raising agent known as Paneangeli, with its delicate vanilla flavour, and it should be obtainable from Italian delis and international shops. Otherwise, regular baking powder will work just fine.
Ingredients
Four eggs, separated
225g (8oz) caster sugar
130g (4¾oz) plain flour, sifted
2 tsp Paneangeli baking powder, sifted
(or regular baking powder)
150g (51/2oz) ground almonds
275g (9¾oz) carrots, grated
a little icing sugar, sifted
handful of flaked almonds
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/180°C/ gas mark 4. Grease a 20cm (8in.) round springform cake tin and line it with baking paper.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together for about 10 minutes, until nice and creamy.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff. Fold the flour, Paneangeli (or baking powder), ground almonds and grated carrots into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the stiffened egg whites.
Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin and bake in the oven for 55–60 minutes, until risen and cooked through. If you insert a wooden skewer, it should come out clean.
Remove from the oven, then leave to cool completely before carefully removing it from the tin. Place on a plate and dust the top with icing sugar and a handful of flaked almonds, before serving.
TIP
This cake is best eaten fresh but will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.
Taken from Gennaro’s Verdure: Big and bold recipes to pack your plate with veg by Gennaro Contaldo (Pavilion Books). Images by David Loftus.
Author and journalist Michael Smith is talking murder this month with the popularity of whodunnits, a good mystery and quirky characters all adding to the killer plots
Those easy-paced detective novels – where you try to solve the crime before the detective – are perennial bookshop favourites. Witness the recent success of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club novels or Robert Thorogood’s similarly titled The Marlow Murder Club series.
Now the Crime Writers’ Association is getting in on the act with a new addition to its legendary Dagger awards. The Daggers have tended to go for more complex and innovative crime thrillers, with interesting settings and psychological twists rather than the more traditional Agatha Christie-style detective mysteries. But the Whodunnit Dagger will celebrate the increasingly popular “modern cosy, traditional crime, and Golden Age mysteries”. The association says the new award “will focus on the intellectual challenge at the heart of a good mystery and revolve around often quirky characters”.
The quirky character is of course one of the most important staples of the ‘whodunnit’. Dilly Knox, himself one of the quirkiest of the Bletchley Park codebreakers, and his two brothers Evoe, a journalist, and Ronnie, a successful writer of murder mysteries, devised a set of 10 strict rules to which whodunnits must adhere. They included that the killer must be mentioned in the first five chapters, and that no supernatural causes, no previously unknown poisons and no more than one secret room or passage were allowed. The rules were adopted in 1929 as the Solemn Oath of the Writer’s Detection Club, which included such luminaries as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers.
The small south Oxfordshire town of Wallingford, where Round & About is put together and published, can fairly claim to be “cosy crime central”. Agatha Christie was one of the town’s most famous inhabitants. She and her husband bought a house there beside the Thames in 1934 and she was still living there when she died in 1976. There’s a bronze bench statue looking out over a park where you can sit beside her.
The town and the surrounding villages have also been repeatedly featured as locations in that long-running cosy crime series Midsomer Murders. Now Marlow, just down the river, is to be featured on television as well with Thorogood, a successful television writer and producer with Murder in Paradise, bringing The Marlow Murder Club to the small screen. Samantha Bond plays the lead character Judith Potts, a retiree living alone in a Thames-side mansion who drags two of her friends into investigating murder.
Robbie James says “we’re all busy” but don’t use that as an excuse when there’s more to it
We’re fast approaching spring. Daffodils are blooming (although they bloomed early this year according to Monty Don), we’re unsure when the clocks change (31st March), and the BRITs are behind us (I love Raye). I’m meeting this sense of optimism with a rant about busyness. Not necessarily being busy, but telling me about it. Hope you’re ok with being my sounding board?
I know you’re busy. You know how I know? Because we’re all busy. We are all trying to cope with a cost of living crisis whilst ensuring we’ve done our steps for the day, posted our perfectly poached eggs on Instagram, charged our Apple Watch, got our kids a fancy dress outfit for a ninth birthday party on Saturday, ordered a HelloFresh, and kept up with the day-by-day depressing news. It’s a lot.
There was a study conducted by Harvard Business School which discovered that responding with ‘’sorry I’m just too busy’’ to a social or professional invitation was the least trustworthy response you could give.
I also don’t know when it became a thing to be passively-aggressively competitive when it comes to how busy we are and who is the most tired; but it can’t be excellent for our already drained brains.
Unless you were one of our old friends, a key worker during the pandemic, the one positive from those few years of sadness was that it allowed us to slow down because we literally had nothing to do. We were forced to not be in a rush. A Monday consisting of two walks and a game of Monopoly would be categorised as a ‘hectic day’.
I’m not saying we’re not allowed to be busy. As a terrible saying goes…whatever floats your boat. I do worry about obligatory busyness though. I’m definitely not the only one who forces themselves to be busy when they don’t have to be. As a man who has weekdays off, I often don’t really enjoy them. The world isn’t in ‘fun mode’ like it is at the weekend, and I feel guilty laying in or being in the pub by three o’clock.
My second caveat is that being career driven is great, and we live in a country where we’re able to have loads of opportunities, but let’s normalise being busy because it’s no longer a talking point. It’s a completely standard way of living which offers nothing particularly interesting to a conversation. It should be more of a talking point if you’re not busy.
It’s also another sign that we still struggle to open up to one another, especially men. How often have we bought our Guinness to feel masculine (I do actually love Guinness but I’m trying to make a point), nestled ourselves into the corner of the pub and began with…’’Alright mate? How’s things?’’…followed by, ’’yeah good, just busy mate, so busy at work’’. Sigh. It’s like a gentle way of saying you’re drained, exhausted, and maybe a bit sad, without actually saying it. Imagine if you actually did admit to feeling that way…you’d be on minus lad points. So there you go. Oh, actually whilst I’m here venting about everything (I’ve enjoyed today’s therapy session, thank you), let’s stop with saying that everything is an ‘’ick’’. It’s a conditioning tool to close ourselves off to certain people and I think that’s sad and unkind. Ok ok, I’m done now. I’ll write about something ultra positive next month like my new CrossFit plan
Artist Helen Grimbleby shares her love of the natural world through her work in a monthly series of observations
March many weathers is here. Although, the first month of meteorological spring, March is such an unresolved month, sometimes clinging on to freezing conditions and snow, unsure whether or when to allow the slow warm fingers of spring to get a hold.
It is nevertheless a joyful month with spring flowers ignoring the meteorological hesitancy, harnessing the sunshine to bring us verges of yellow primroses, cowslips, celandines, dandelions and narcissi/daffodils.
Where there are flowers, there are usually butterflies. In March we begin to see them emerge and arrive. Red admiral butterflies typically migrated from North Africa and were seen from spring onwards. In 2023, there was a 400% increase in their UK population. Experts suggest this may be due to the species now overwintering here rather than migrating due to warmer temperatures resulting from climate change.
Many of our early spring flowers are yellow as early pollinators, mainly insects, are attracted to the colour which appears as ultra-violet blue to them.
And it is attraction which brings us to the final association with March, and idiomatic mad hares. I have seen hares in West Berkshire but not engaged in the boxing behaviour which inspired the phrase. This is a tale of unrequited ardour with male buck hares pursuing female doe hares in the hope of mating and then, it seems, taking it too far. The unimpressed doe will demonstrate her lack of interest in dramatic fashion by turning on the buck and thumping him, initiating the boxing when fur may fly!
Helen Grimbleby is a West Berks/North Hants based artist who is inspired by the natural world’s changing seasons. After exploring outside, she enjoys writing and illustrating her Nature Sketchbook and painting larger landscapes at her home studio (@burbleartstudios).
We chat to the bestselling author, comedian, actress and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax OBE who stars at Sheldonian Theatre with Buddhist monk, Gelong Thubten on Monday, 18th March.
I wholeheartedly recommend you read I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was, Ruby’s latest book. It grabs your attention from the first page, where Ruby documents her recent breakdown. She is writing from a mental institution where she is undergoing RTMS, likening herself to Frankenstein’s monster.
She eloquently describes how this recent episode of “depression, the black hole of diseases where you sit helpless as your mind hammers you with accusations and it’s hard to stay alive and listen” took her down.
“These days, trying to stay sane in a completely chaotic world makes life incredibly difficult,” she says. “Thank you for your comments about my book. I haven’t read it back but I’ve taken all my books on tour and this is the most pleasurable so that’s a clue.”
“For those readers who are deep in the darkness of mental illness, I hope my book makes you feel less alone.”
In Hard Times and Fearless Living she will star with fellow author Gelong Thubten for a conversation, following a group meditation, on Monday, 18th March, as part of Oxford Literary Festival. Book your tickets here.
It’s British Pie Week soon! 4th to 10th March to be precise. It’s an annual event to celebrate a popular icon of British cuisine. That said, when you learn that Brits are estimated to eat £1billion worth of pies each year, it would appear that every week is British pie week. That figure doesn’t even counting those that are home-made, which is a somewhat incredible fact.
To celebrate British Pie week, the good folks at Denby have shared some mouth-watering pie recipes with us. They’re a bit different to the traditional pies you might be used to, but we still think you might be tempted!
Crunchy Topped Leek and Broccoli Fish Pie – Serves 4 -6
Ingredients
200g fresh sourdough breadcrumbs
A good handful of fresh tarragon leaves, roughly chopped
150g unsalted butter, melted
Freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
2 leeks, white part only, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
300g broccoli, cut into small florets
A splash of extra virgin olive oil
800g firm white fish (we used cod) cut into medium sized pieces
1 tablespoon of plain flour
2 x 300g tubs of sour cream
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
250ml warm water
Lemon zest, to serve
Method
Heat the oven to 400°F / 200°C and prepare a shallow casserole dish with a splash of olive oil.
Place the breadcrumbs, half the melted butter, half the chopped tarragon, salt and pepper into a large bowl and mix to combine. Set to one side.
Heat the remaining butter in the shallow casserole on a low to medium heat on the hob. Add the leeks, garlic and broccoli florets and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until softened.
On a small plate, season the flour with salt and pepper and coat the fish pieces. Place them in the shallow casserole dish.
In a small bowl, add the sour cream, tarragon, mustard and water, mixing well.
Pour over the ingredients in the casserole dish and stir gently to combine. Top with the breadcrumbs and cook in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
Serve the fish pie into bowls with seasonal greens such as kale or Swiss chard. Enjoy!
Apple Pie with Blackberries & Clementine – Serves 6
Ingredients
250g plain flour
110g cold, cubed butter
4 apples
150g blackberries
Zest & juice of 1 clementine
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1.5 tsp ground ginger
Handful of brown sugar
Method
Pre heat your oven to 170c. Rub the butter into the flour until a crumb has formed then add 3-5 tbsp water until you have a moist dough but still with a bit of crumble. Cut in half and roll one half out to 0.5cm thick. Place into an over proof medium size dish or small oven proof ramekins if you’re making individual portions.
Trim the edges of the pastry, prick all over with a fork and blind bake for 7 minutes. Whilst that’s cooking peel and chop your apples into small cubes. Add to a bowl with the blackberries, clementine, sugar and spices. Mix well.
Fill your pie crust to the brim and cover with the other half of your pastry. Roll out the off-cuts and decorate as you like! It looks stylish to plait around the edge or have fun making leaves.
Egg wash and bake for 15-20 minutes until the pie is a rich golden brown.
Serve with double cream, vanilla custard or caramel ice cream to elevate the flavours.
Academic, TV presenter and author Alice Roberts tells us about her Crypt theatre show, based on her latest book, which visits Guildford’s G Live and Wycombe Swan this month…
Q: Hello Alice. You’re taking your new show, Crypt on the road. What is it about?
“The show is all about my new book, Crypt, illustrated with lots of great images and packed full of intriguing stories and surprising revelations. I’d like to say it’s an all-singing, all-dancing romp through the worst injuries and diseases of the Middle Ages, but – my audiences will be thankful – there’s no singing and dancing in it. But I can promise plenty of plague, syphilis and leprosy, gruesome murders, archery and sword fights. Crypt is the final instalment in a trilogy that started with my books Ancestors and Buried. It pulls together some of the threads from the first two books but also moves us on in time. Ancestors focused on prehistory, while Buried was about the first millennium: Romans, Anglo Saxons and Vikings. With Crypt, I move into the Middle Ages, but once again I’m looking at how archaeology is being radically transformed by new science, from chemical techniques which allow us to analyse tooth composition and work out where out where somebody grew up, to ancient DNA – where we’ve now entered the era of “archaeogenomics”.
Q: Can you tell me more about why ancient DNA is so exciting?
“Yes – we’re now sequencing entire genomes – in other words the entire set of genetic information contained in an organism. And that’s providing us with all sorts of revelations when it comes to human history – allowing us to trace family relationships between individuals in cemeteries and communal tombs, and to track migration in the past. But the focus in Crypt is on diseases and what this genetic investigation can tell us about them. It’s completely transforming our understanding of how diseases have affected human societies in the past because we’re suddenly able to make definitive diagnoses using DNA – and see how diseases have changed genetically over time, too. During COVID, we used similar techniques – PCR and sequencing – to test for the disease and to track the emergence of new mutations and strains of the virus, and we can do the same with ancient pathogens.”
Q: Does it have any relevance to today?
“Yes, absolutely. It means we can understand the impact of disease on past populations much better – and that’s very useful information for archaeologists and historians, but it also means we understand more about how diseases actually work.”
Q: Do you draw comparisons between disease in the Middle Ages and COVID?
“Not explicitly, but it’s interesting to look at how epidemics and pandemics emerged and spread in the past – and how society responded. You might think that, 500 years on, we’d be dealing with infectious disease very differently – but actually, up until the point we had vaccines, the only protection we had available was similar to what people had in the Middle Ages – quarantining, keeping away from people, wearing a mask.”
Q: Do you look at how diseases were treated in the past?
“Yes – I’m interested not only in how we can use new science to look at old diseases but also the experience of those individuals with diseases – how they were treated by society and the management options available to them. If you had leprosy, for example, there was certainly no curative treatment available but there were hospitals – more like the hospices of today – where you could be cared for.”
Q: What is the genome research you cover in the book and talk about in the show?
“I focus on the exciting 1000 Ancient Genomes Project at the Francis Crick Institute in London, led by Pontus Skoglund – and already generating some incredible results. It’s the most ambitious ancient DNA project in Britain to date. But there’s lots of other genetic research mentioned in the book, too.”
Q: Can you give us an example?
“One really fascinating case is the Justinianic Plague of the sixth century CE. Through DNA research, we now know that the three big pandemics of history – the 19th-century Hong Kong Plague, the 14th-century Black Death and the Justinianic Plague – were all caused by the same pathogen, Yersinia pestis. It’s a great example of how DNA can lead us to a precise diagnosis of diseases in the past – and a sobering lesson about how diseases can lie dormant for centuries, then re-erupt into a pandemic. If we can understand why that happens – that will help us combat disease today.”
“I love campervanning – heading off on adventures, and not necessarily knowing where I’ll end up.”
Q: Do the audience need to be science boffins to follow the things you mention?
“Definitely not. I’m interested in sharing science in a way that’s detailed and interesting but accessible to everyone. That’s not about dumbing down – but just about explaining technical terms and not using impenetrable jargon! I want to open up this amazing science and history – to tell these brilliant stories and reveal secrets – without talking down to people.”
Q: What else happens in the show?
“I can promise a very entertaining evening, which may sound weird to say when it’s about death and disease. There’s a lot of new science, and it really is this collision of science and history that for me is very exciting. There’s also a Q&A with the audience and a book signing afterwards.”
Q: Has an audience member ever asked a question in a Q&A that stumped you?
“Yes, of course! There have been times when I’ve genuinely never thought of a particular question and it’s really exciting to be challenged. I find that with my university teaching too – I love being asked interesting questions. If I can’t answer a question, it means I either have to go away and find out – or if the answer doesn’t exist that could be a whole new avenue for research. And some questions can be more philosophical or ethical – and those questions invite everyone in the audience to form an opinion.”
Q: You’re a qualified doctor, who once treated living patients. Do you think of the skeletons you work on as dead patients, as it were?
“Yes I do. When I’m looking at a skeleton I’m not just looking at a bunch of old bones, I’m very much looking at a person. I’m looking for the traces of that life, written into the bones. It’s a kind of biography.”
Q: You’ve packed a lot into your career – doctor, academic, author, television presenter, artist and now children’s author. Do you have a favourite?
“I enjoy all the strands of my career, and feel very lucky to be exploring ideas I find fascinating in my writing and broadcasting – and sharing those ideas with an enthusiastic audience. The different aspects of my work might seem quite separate, but they all flow together. I started writing because of television, and I started doing television because of my academic work, by writing bone reports on Channel 4’s Time Team, back in the day. I really enjoy the teamwork and camaraderie when I’m making documentaries, but I also enjoy the monastic solitude of writing, and I also love teaching medical students. It sounds like a lot of different things, but they all inform each other and are quite synergistic. I also really enjoy ranging across different disciplines – bringing together ideas from biology and history, genetics and archaeology.”
Q: Will people get to see your art in the show?
“I’ve drawn chapter headings for the new book, so I’ll certainly be sharing those images. I’ve always enjoyed art, but have been making more time to develop new techniques and use new media in recent years, and I’ve recently been made an honorary academician of the Royal West of England Academy. I offer some of my artwork as giclee prints which people can buy via my website.”
Q: What projects are you working on at the moment?
“I’m writing the sequel to my children’s novel Wolf Road, and I’m currently working on a series for History Channel called Royal Autopsy, where we explore the medical histories and causes of death of various monarchs. We’ve already autopsied Elizabeth I and Charles II, and in the new series we’ll delve into the insides of Henry IV, Mary Tudor, Queen Anne and George IV. We interrogate what was written about their deaths at the time, but also approach them with modern eyes. There’s also a new series of Digging for Britain – series eleven – and it will be available on iplayer, of course – where viewers can also catch up with my earlier landmark series such as Ice Age Giants and the Incredible Human Journey. I’ve also got an exciting programme on the Herculaneum scrolls coming soon on Channel 5. And I’m very much hoping to embark on a science podcast soon with my good friend, the geneticist and broadcaster Adam Rutherhood. So I’m keeping myself busy!”
Q: You’re famously part of the campervan community– how did that start?
“It’s all down to the wonderful, late Professor Mick Aston, of the University of Bristol and Time Team fame, who used to have a campervan which he used to drive to filming locations. I bought it from him – it was a very special Type 25 Syncro – and I sprayed it a lurid green! I’m now the proud owner of a slightly younger VW T5 California. I love campervanning – heading off on adventures, and not necessarily knowing where I’ll end up!”
Q: Do you use your camper van when you’re on tour?
“Yes I do – on my last book tour I stayed in some fantastic campsites across the UK. I had a great time touring round northern Ireland and found some really special places to stay in the Yorkshire Dales too. Our ancient ancestors were nomadic hunter-gatherers – perhaps that’s why I love camping so much!”
We’re sharing a taste of The Sweet Polish Kitchen: A celebration of home baking & nostalgic treats by Ren Behan.
Wuzetka – chocolate cream sponge
The wuzetka cake originates from Warsaw, and it was said to have first been baked in a bakery along a road named the ‘W-Z route’ in Warsaw shortly after the Second World War (the road connected the eastern parts of the city to the western, the Wschód-Zachód areas, hence ‘W-Z’). It is a classic chocolate sponge cake, baked in a square tin, filled with cream (the line in the middle of the road) and topped with a cherry. If you are baking this for adults or a party, you can add a little cherry vodka to your soak.
Serves nine
Ingredients: • 120ml vegetable oil or mild olive oil & extra for greasing • 200g soft light brown sugar • Two eggs • 1 tsp vanilla bean extract • 240g sour cream • 200g self-raising flour • 75g cocoa powder • 1 tsp baking powder • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda • 240ml fresh hot black tea
For the soak: • 50ml cherry vodka or fruit tea
Optional jam layer: • 250g cherry jam or plum jam
For the cream filling: • 250g mascarpone cheese, at room temperature • 800ml double cream • 3 tbsp icing sugar
For the chocolate glaze: • 2 tbsp butter • 100g quality dark chocolate • 100g icing sugar • 1 tbsp runny honey • 2 tbsp boiling water
To serve: • Whipped cream for piping • Fresh or canned cherries
Method: Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas Mark 4/350°F. Grease and line two 20 x 20cm/8 x 8in square baking tins with baking paper.
In a stand mixer, beat the oil and sugar until it starts to thicken. Add the eggs, one by one, and the vanilla bean extract. Stir in the sour cream. Next, sift in the self-raising flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and stir until there are no lumps. Finally, pour in the hot tea and mix again thoroughly.
Divide the batter evenly between the tins and tap them gently on a work surface. Bake for 30–35 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool slightly in the tins, then carefully turn out onto a wire rack and leave the sponges to cool completely.
To assemble, place one layer of sponge into the bottom of a lined tin and brush liberally with the soak. If using jam, spread a layer evenly over the soaked base. For the cream filling, whisk the mascarpone, then add the cream and icing sugar and whisk until the mixture becomes firm. Spread the cream over the base and flatten slightly with a spatula. Place the second layer of sponge on top and place the tin in the refrigerator, ideally overnight.
When you are ready to serve, make the chocolate glaze by melting the glaze ingredients together in a non-stick pan over a medium heat until thick and glossy, then leave to cool slightly.
Remove the cake from the fridge and carefully take it out of the tin onto a serving plate. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake and smooth out. Cut the cake into squares. Serve with some piped cream and a cherry on top.
Blueberry & almond Babka loaf
The babka seemed to have something of a resurgence over lockdown and, of course, it is a well-known staple treat within New York delis. The original recipe is said to have originated in the Jewish communities of Poland and Ukraine. This type of babka (a sweet braided bread, as opposed to a fluted bundt) was likely taken by the diaspora to Israel, and beyond, establishing itself as a ‘yeast cake filled with chocolate, cinnamon and sometimes fruit’. I was interested to learn that in the early 19th century, challah dough was rolled up with jam and baked as a loaf and that the addition of chocolate and other spices was a much later incarnation.
Some say the word babka comes from the Yiddish bubbe, also meaning ‘grandmother’. A babka made in this way, of twisted strands of dough baked in a loaf form, is different to my earlier recipes for a more cake-like babka, baked in a bundt tin and reminiscent of a grandmother’s skirt. Rather than using chocolate, I like to make mine with either a home-made preserve or, in this case, with a wild blueberry preserve. There are Polish and French versions of such a preserve in most supermarkets. Ground almonds add a little additional texture and another layer of flavour, but you could use finely chopped hazelnuts, instead. Poppy seed paste also makes a good alternative filling to jam.
Ingredients: • 350g plain flour, plus extra • 14g fresh yeast, crumbled (or 7g active dry yeast) • 75g caster sugar • 75ml lukewarm milk • Two eggs, plus one egg yolk, beaten (save white for glaze) • 1 tsp almond extract grated zest of one orange • 1 tsp salt • 75g butter, cubed, room temp • Sunflower oil, for greasing
For the filling: • 300g wild blueberry preserve or any jam of your choice • 50g ground almonds • 50g soft light brown sugar
For the streusel: • 25g cold butter • 40g plain flour • 25g caster sugar or soft light brown sugar
Method: In a jug, combine 1 tablespoon of the flour with the yeast, 1 tablespoon of the caster sugar and half of the lukewarm milk. Stir with a whisk, then set aside in a warm place for 10–15 minutes.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the remaining flour with the rest of the caster sugar and mix well. Pour in the yeast mixture and keep mixing. Switch to a dough hook and add the eggs and egg yolk, the rest of the milk, the almond extract and orange zest, and mix well for around 5 minutes. Finally, add the salt, followed by the butter and keep mixing/kneading for at least 10 minutes. It should form a lump of dough.
You will need to stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times. If the dough is still sticky at this point, add up to 2 tablespoons of extra flour.
Brush the inside of a clean bowl with a little oil. Transfer the dough to this bowl and cover with a clean cloth. Leave somewhere warm for at least hours, but ideally four hours.
When you are ready to bake, line a loaf tin, measuring 30 x 11 x 7cm/12 x 4¼ x 2¾ in, with a single sheet of baking paper, so that a little hangs over the long edges.
Tip the dough out onto a board sprinkled with a generous amount of flour. Punch the dough to get rid of any air pockets and knead for a couple of minutes. Roll out the dough to a 30 x 20cm/12 x 8in rectangle. Spread the preserve/jam for the filling all over the dough, leaving a couple of centimetres clear around the edge, then sprinkle over the ground almonds and the brown sugar. Roll the dough into a log, starting from one of the longest edges. Take a sharp knife and cut down the centre of the log, dividing the whole length. You will then have two long pieces and be able to see the filling on the inside.
Starting at the top, join the two pieces of dough, then cross them over each other. Keep going, as though you are making a braid. You can trim both ends to neaten them up. Carefully transfer the whole piece of twisted dough into the lined loaf tin. Cover with a clean cloth and chill in the refrigerator for up to 2 hours.
Meanwhile, make the streusel topping. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the mixture resembles a crumble or a sandy texture.
Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas Mark 4/350°F.
Brush the top of your loaf with the lightly beaten egg white, then sprinkle over the streusel topping. Bake in the centre of the oven for 50 minutes, checking after 35 minutes to see whether the top looks golden.
Once it is golden, cover with foil and continue baking for the remaining time. Remove from the oven and leave the babka to cool in the tin.
