#Lesley S. Blanch

[thefugitivesaint]

Lesley S. Blanch (1904-2007) , 'Le Coup de Grace', ''The Tatler'', Vol. 104, #1350, 1927 Source

[sofrpc]

⌖*ﾟ— 400 UNIQUE AND UNDERUSED FEMALE NAMES

in honor of returning to the rpc, i have created a masterlist of 400 unique and underused female names ! these are all listed in alphabetical order, and although i dont claim any of these as my own, please don’t copy and paste straight into another masterlist. feel free to use the names in any way you like, i hope this gives you muse for your characters (my faves are bolded) — also smash that like or reblog if you found this useful, thank you !

A

aliyah, acacia, adabelle, adair, adelie, adelina, adley, adrienne, ainsley, alana, alaska, alessia, alfie, allora, amanita, amara, ambrosia, amelie, ambrosia, analia, anastasia, andrea, aneka, angelica, ana-marie, ana-sofia, anthea, ariel, arielle, arizona, asteria, astrid, atlanta, auburn, audrey, aurelia, aurora, autumn, avalee, avanelle, avery, aviana, axa

B

baila, bailey, baize, bambi, bardot, barry, beatrix, bee, benilde, bethia, beverly, bexley, billie, bindi, birdie, blake, blanche, blaze, blossom, blue, bonita, bonnie, braelyn, brielle, brinley, brinx, brona, bronte, brooke, bryce

C

cailin, calla, camila, camille, carmen, catalina, cecilia, celine, celestia, chanel, chantelle, chelsea, cheryl, claire, clara, claudia, clea, cleo, colette, corine, courtney, cynthia

D

dahlia, dakota, darlene, darodah, dawn, deidra, delaney, delilah, denise, desiree, destiny, dinah, dove, dylan

E

eden, effie, eileen, eiza, electra, elena, elise, ellie, elodie, eloise, elora, ember, emerson, esme, estelle, evelyn, evolee

F

farah, farren, faye, felicity, fern, finley, fleur, florence, frankie, freya, frieda

G

gaia, galiena, genie, gia, gianna, gigi, gisela, giselle, genesis, grecia, greer, greta, gwendolyn

H

hadlee, harlow, harlee, harlyn, harper, hayden, hazel, helena, heidi, holland

I

ida, ileana, imogen, indianna, indie, inessa, ingrid, inna, iris, irene, isabel, isadora, isla, ivana, ivory, ivy

J

jacinta, jadelyn, jamie, jamilla, jaylah, jenna, jersey, jocelyn, jodie, jolene, jordyn, juliana, july, juniper, juno

K

kaia, kalina, kalani, karina, katherine, kaya, kaylee, keegan, kelby, kelsey, kendall, kendra, kenna, kiara, kimberly, kinsley, kristina, kyra

L

lara, laurel, layla, leia, leighton, leilani, lena, lesley, leona, leticia, liberty, liliane, lilo, loraine, lorelei, lori, london, lorena, lucia, luisa, lumi, luna, lynn

M

maeve, maize, malia, marcella, mariana, marissa, margot, marisol, marjorie, marlene, matilde, mavis, mazikeen, melodie, merlia, micah, mikaela, mila, milena, miriam, mirielle, mona, myrsina

N

nadia, nadine, naomi, naressa, nathalia, naya, neila, neo, nicola, nikita, noelle, nora, nova, nur, nyla, nyx

O

octavia, odelia, odina, olena, olita, olive, olivia, olympia, opal, ophelia, oriana, orion, orla, orlena

P

paige, paislee, pandora, pearle, penelope, pepper, perrie, petra, peyton, phoebe, pilar, pip, piper, pippa, priscilla, priya, prudence

Q

queenie, quella, quinn, quinta

R

raffa, rana, raven, regina, remi, rhea, rhiannon, river, robin, rome, rosabelle, rosalie, rosalyn, rosette, rowan

S

sable, sadie, sage, sahar, salem, samira, saoirse, saskia, savannah, scout, selina, serafin, seraphina, shani, shenae, sia, siobhan, sloane, solene, solstice, sonya, summer, suri, sydney, sylvia

T

tamara, tana, tasmin, tasha, tatiana, teagan, tessa, thalia, thea, tilda, toni, tove, tricia, trixie, tuesday

U

udelle, ulani, uri, urma, ursa

V

valerie, valentina, valentine, venus, vera, verona, vivian

W

weslyn, whitney, willa, willow, winnie, wynona, wynter

X

xahlia, xana, xandra, xanthi, xena, xylia

Y

yara, yasmine, yana, yani, ysabel, yvette, yvonne

Z

zada, zahara, zara, zariah, zaylee, zeina, zelda, zelena, zeriah, zoelle, zuri

[j-august]

Harriette Wilson's Memoirs ed. Lesley Blanch (1957/2003: 454) - ed.'s biographical note on Lord Byron.

[popentertainment-contests]

LET HIM GO CONTEST!

Witness how far one family will go to rescue one of their own in the riveting and emotionally charged action-drama LET HIM GO, available to own for the first time on Digital on January 19, 2021 and on Blu-ray™, DVD and On Demand on February 2, 2021 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. 

Based on the novel of the same name by New York Times acclaimed author Larry Watson, the intense thriller reunites Academy Award nominee Diane Lane (Trumbo, Unfaithful) and Academy Award winner Kevin Costner (“Yellowstone,” Hidden Figures) as a husband and wife who set out to save their young grandson from the clutches of a ruthless family. 

Hailed as “original and suspenseful” (Owen Gleiberman, Variety), the visually stunning, Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh® film is set in the 1960’s American West and explores the bonds of family, the power of love and the necessity of sacrifice. Featuring never-before-seen bonus content with the film’s cast and crew, LET HIM GO on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital includes exclusive extras taking audiences behind the scenes with the cast and crew diving deeper into the western-tinged drama.

After their life is set off course following the tragic loss of their son, retired sheriff George Blackledge (Costner) and his wife Margaret (Lane) leave their Montana ranch on a mission through the North Dakota desert to rescue their young grandson from a dangerous family living off the grid. Navigating tragedy and tumult, the couple soon discover that the Weboy family, a deep-rooted local clan led by ruthless matriarch Blanche (Academy Award nominee Lesley Manville; Phantom Thread, Ordinary Love) has no intention of letting the child go, forcing George and Margaret to ask how far they will go to fight for their family.

Proclaimed by critics as “beautifully acted by Costner and Lane” (Glenn Kenny, The New York Times), LET HIM GO is filled with powerful performances and explores the strengths of family ties, the bittersweet and brutal cost of vengeance and the true stakes of heroism set against an iconic American backdrop.

Writer and director Thomas Bezucha (The Family Stone, Big Eden) delivers a “compelling” (Pete Hammond, Deadline) and intensely visceral adaptation that authentically brings a bygone era to life in the heart-pounding revenge rescue tale. With an exceptional cast lead by Lane, Costner and Manville, LET HIM GO is rounded out by Jeffrey Donovan (“Fargo,” Sicario), Kayli Carter (Bad Education, “Mrs. America”), Booboo Stewart (The Twilight Saga, The Grizzlies) and Will Brittain (Kong: Skull Island, Everybody Wants Some).

Accompanied by a hopeful and haunting score by Academy Award winning composer Michael Giacchino (Up, Jurassic World series) that pulls the audience deeper into the story, LET HIM GO’s phenomenal performances and majestic landscapes are punctuated by palpable tension and shocking moments of terror, raising the ominous mood of the “searing thriller” (Glenn Kenny, The New York Times) that will have everyone on the edge of their seats throughout the film.

http://www.popentertainmentarchives.com/contests

[playfilmto]

Nechte ho jít

Nechte ho jít Přišli o syna, ale za žádnou cenu nechtějí přijít o vnuka. Poklidný život penzionovaného šerifa George Blackledgea (Kevin Costner) a jeho ženy Margaret (Diane Lane) přeruší tragická smrt jejich syna. Vzápětí jim osud uštědří další ránu. Jejich snacha se znovu provdá a s novým partnerem odjede žít k jeho rodině. Pochopitelně s sebou odveze i svého malého synka. George a Margaret by se s tím snad nakonec smířili, kdyby nový partner jejich snachy neměl násilnické sklony. I proto se vydají na strastiplnou cestu přes půl země do Dakoty, aby v případě nouze zakročili a odvezli chlapečka s sebou domů. Jenže jeho nová rodina, jíž šéfuje svérázná Blanche (Lesley Manville), něco takového rozhodně nedovolí. Read the full article

[aion-rsa]

Upcoming Movies in November 2020: Streaming, VOD, and Theaters

https://ift.tt/3evPPz5

At this very moment, Halloween decorations are coming down, shattered Jack-o-Lanterns are being swept up, and bounties of candy are being traded by the most discerning of Trick ‘r Treaters. Yes, All Hallows’ Eve is done and November is here.

Seasonally that means warm sweaters and warmer, fuzzier movies at the cinema (or streamer in 2020 parlance). Even though we are still nearly two months away from Christmas, a glance at the upcoming November releases reveal it’s already the season to be jolly. But there’s more than feel-good cheer. There are also horror movies, awards contenders, and comedies to look forward to, whether in a theater or from the comfort of your own home.

Let Him Go

November 6 in the U.S. (December 11 in the UK)

Did you walk away from Man of Steel wishing you could just get a film about Kevin Costner and Diane Lane dealing with the seedy side of family life in rural America? Then you’re in luck, because Let Him Go looks like a slow-boiling thriller that actually takes advantage of their talents. In the film from writer-director Thomas Bezucha (pulling from a Larry Watson novel), the pair plays retired sheriff George Blackledge (Costner) and his wife Margaret (Lane).

After their son dies, the Blackledges’ daughter-in-law marries again, taking their grandson into a new family. But when the grieving grandparents realize her second husband is abusive, and is himself the son of even shadier figures (Lesley Manville and Jeffrey Donovan), George and Margret are roped into a nightmare of familial trauma and treachery. Do they let their grandson go, or face the scariest thing in the heartland… Manville’s Blanche Weboy.

Mank

November 13 (December 4 in the UK)

Prior to its December bow on Netflix, David Fincher’s hotly anticipated Mank will have a limited run in theaters later this month. The picture, which is already being hailed on social media as a masterpiece by many, is Fincher’s first film since 2014’s Gone Girl and has the tantalizing setup of being about the sometimes overlooked writer Herman J. Mankiewicz, co-screenwriter of Citizen Kane.

With an apparently sweltering performance by Gary Oldman as the hard drinking and morally ambivalent writer, the picture is shot in much the same style as Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece. Mank also pulls from other styles and seems to investigate the disputed claim by critic Pauline Kael that Mankiewicz deserved sole authorship for Citizen Kane’s script. Either way the film, which also features a screenplay by Fincher’s father, Jack Fincher, looks like one of the most unique and exciting movies of 2020.

Freaky

November 13

Writer-director Christopher Landon did an unlikely thing a few years ago with Happy Death Day: He made the Groundhog Day concept of being forced to relive the same day over and over again into a genuinely clever and amusing horror-comedy. He now seeks to do the same trick twice with Freaky, another Blumhouse Productions theatrical release that reworks the concept of Disney’s Freaky Friday with a blood-curdling twist. Instead of being about a mother and teenage daughter switching place, now the teenage girl is swapping bodies with a serial killer.

It’s a gonzo premise, which gives a lot of room for actors Kathryn Newton, as heroine Millie, and Vince Vaughn, as “the Blissfield Butcher,” to do big, bold things—especially once they switch characters.

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey

November 13

Netflix’s first major Christmas movie of the 2020 season aims to be a real showstopper. How can it not be with songs by Philip Lawrence and the immeasurable John Legend? The Grammy winning pair are now trying their hand at a Christmas musical with Jingle Jangle, a toe-tapper fantasy that melds Dickensian Yuletide iconography with a star-studded cast of diverse talent.

At the center of it is Forest Whitaker as the ultimate toy inventor who’s on the brink of unveiling his masterpiece. But after it’s stolen by the dastardly Keegan-Michael Key, two children must go on an adventure to save… look, it’s a family holiday movie with John Legend songs. You’re either in or you’re out!

Ammonite

November 13 (U.S. Only)

After months on the festival circuit, Francis Lee’s much anticipated Ammonite finally arrives in theaters this month. The film stars Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan as a pair embarking on a forbidden romance, yes, and it also promises a look at a world on the cusp of change. Some of it will be significant and relatively sudden, with Winslet playing the pioneering paleontologist Mary Anning, who in real life reached international notoriety for her scientific discoveries of Jurassic fossils along the English Channel. Some of it will be painfully slow if nonexistent.

The latter struggle occurs when Winslet’s Anning agrees to essentially chaperone Charlotte Murchison (Ronan), the depressed wife of a wealthy benefactor. But as Anne and Charlotte’s business arrangement becomes a friendship, and then blossoms into something more, their work along the coast becomes a point of interest for not only the pair, but also all those watching from the wings. A definite awards contender, it’s one many have been waiting to see for themselves since the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Fatman

November 13 in theaters, November 24 digital (U.S. Only)

Mel Gibson is playing Santa Claus. To reiterate, Mel “Mad Max” Gibson, is portraying old Kris Kringle.

But you should realize this isn’t your daddy’s Santa. Hell, it’s not even your Santa. But if this grindhouse VOD release somehow works… it might be one you are happy exists.

Read more

Movies

20 Christmas Movies for Badasses

By Michael Reed

Movies

The 17 Best Christmas Horror Movies

By Elizabeth Rayne and 3 others

The gist is Gibson’s Kris is a bitter burnout who has become disillusioned by the lack of Christmas Spirit out there. He’s even collaborating with the U.S. military to make ends meet. But when a lump of coal pisses off the wrong kid, that child sends a hitman (Walton Goggins) to take Santa’s head. This is like an ‘80s revenge flick, right down to Gibson’s starring role.

For better or worse, we’re intrigued.

The Princess Switch, Switched Again

November 19 (US Only)

Netflix made a sequel to The Princess Switch. You know, the holiday movie where Vanessa Hudgens plays both a posh princess and an all-American everygirl, and then they switch places like in The Parent Trap?

Either you know what we’re talking about or you don’t, and if you do, good news… they’re switching places again this month!

Run

November 20 (US only)

Run is a Hulu original that appears intent on causing teenagers around the world to think twice about their parent’s smiling concern. Because concern and smiles is what Sarah Paulson’s Diane Sherman is all about. A tightly wound “helicopter parent” if there ever was one, Diane refuses to see her daughter Chloe (Kiera Allen) as a burden. In fact, she likes Chloe just the way she is, confined to a wheelchair, helpless, and on perhaps unnecessary medication.

Read more

Movies

Best Modern Horror Movies

By Don Kaye

Movies

A24 Horror Movies Ranked From Worst to Best

By David Crow and 3 others

But when taken from Chloe’s point-of-view, this is terrifying. Too bad it will be incredibly difficult for her to run away from home. But as the title suggests… that may be what’s best, dear.

Small Axe

November 15 in the UK, November 20 in the U.S.

Rather than a single film, writer-director Steve McQueen follows up the underrated Widows with five movies in this anthology set. The BBC/Amazon co-production, which will see its premiere respectively on those platforms on each side of the pond, provides a nuanced and trenchant study of the Black experience in the United Kingdom. Each film is standalone but traces a different story or era.

For instance, the first film in the “series,” Mangrove, stars Black Panther’s Letitia Wright and tells the true story of the Mangrove Nine, who clashed with London’s Metropolitan Police in 1970, and whose trial resulted in the first judicial acknowledgment of behavior motivated by racial hatred within British law enforcement. Meanwhile John Boyega plays real life Metropolitan Police officer Leroy Logan, who joined the force with the aspiration of changing it after he saw his father assaulted by two policemen.

These promise to be probing and hopefully revelatory works of cinema, whether you view them as a collection of films or a single miniseries.

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square

November 22

Yeah, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is great and all with its three ghosts and Tiny Tim. But you know what it didn’t have? Dolly Parton as a singing angel. Checkmate, Charlie.

Read more

Movies

The Best Christmas Movie Soundtracks of All Time

By Ivan Radford

TV

Christmas in The Twilight Zone: Revisiting Night of the Meek

By Arlen Schumer

With Netflix’s Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square, Christine Baranski plays a “Scrooge” styled owner of a small community’s land—and she’s planning to sell it this Christmas. That is until she has an intervention from an angel played by none other than Ms. Dolly Parton.

And did we mention Dolly wrote all 14 songs in this thing? It’s a Dolly Holiday, indeed.

Hillbilly Elegy

November 24

The Ron Howard who won an Oscar for directing A Beautiful Mind appears to be stepping to the forefront again with his first Netflix original. After spending time in the galaxy, far far away, Howard looks determined to offer a harrowing, and heartstring-pulling, account of three generations of “hillbillies” struggling for the American dream in Appalachia.

J.D. Vance (Gabriel Bosso), who is a real-life author, returns to his small town after attending Yale. Back home, he will have a reckoning with his childhood and the mother who defined it, Bev (Amy Adams). Actually Bev’s movie, Hillbilly Elegy see her experiences with J.D. and his siblings over the years from her unexpected teenage motherhood to their current estranged relationship.

Awards chatter will have you believe Adams is a Best Actress frontrunner for her turn, as is Glenn Close who plays J.D.’s grandmother Mamaw, but we imagine many might just be happy to see a family more dysfunctional than their own this Thanksgiving season.

The Croods: A New Age

November 25 in the U.S. (January 29 in the UK)

You remember The Croods, right? The DreamWorks movie about cavemen and a voice cast that includes Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, and Nicolas Cage… No, really, it came out in 2013! We’re serious.  Well, they made a sequel and this one also includes the voices of Peter Dinklage and Kelly Marie Tran, and it’ll be in theaters. So, yeah. There you go.

The Christmas Chronicles 2

November 25

It’s only Thanksgiving and we’re already on our fourth Christmas movie from Netflix. Yet we suspect this is going to be the one to generate the most excitement since it follows up on the first time Kurt Russell played Santa Claus as a burly mountain man of action for the streaming service.

That 2018 effort was cute, but this sequel is taking things to a whole new world—the North Pole to be exact—and will feature CG elves, a Dickensian Christmas village, and most spectacularly Goldie Hawn in more than a cameo role as Mrs. Claus.

Additionally, Chris Columbus has graduated from producer to writer-director status on this sequel. As he’s the director behind Home Alone and the first two Harry Potter films, his clout and fantastical eye promises to bring some epic holiday majesty to a film that is still about Russell kicking ass and taking names for his naughty list.

Uncle Frank

November 25

One of the most anticipated Thanksgiving releases of the year aimed at a slightly older audience, Uncle Frank appears to be a substantial film about the ties that bind. Family ties are, after all, what brings Sophia Lillis’ Beth Bledsoe to visit her dear Uncle Frank (Paul Bettany). In 1973, Frank is a charismatic and worldly relation to a small town girl like Beth. But it’s only when she crashes his Manhattan apartment that she becomes the first family member to realize Frank is gay… and a delightful companion for a grim road trip to his native home in rural South Carolina.

Read more

TV

Hulu New Releases: November 2020

By Alec Bojalad

TV

Sky Cinema and NOW TV: What’s New in November 2020?

By Kirsten Howard

The film has played the festival circuit to already positive acclaim ahead of its Amazon Prime release, with the word being it’s a return to form for Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball. It also is supposed to have standout performances for both Bettany and It’s Lillis.

Superintelligence

November 26 (US), November 27 (UK)

HBO Max also brings some holiday cheer at the end of the month with Superintelligence, a new Melissa McCarthy high-concept comedy. In the film, McCarthy plays Carol Peters, a woman who believes nothing exciting ever happens to her. That changes when her smart TV, smartphone, and even smart microwave begin talking back to her.

What at first appears to be a prank is actually a test since she’s been selected for “observation” by the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence (voiced by James Corden). The AI wants to use Carol as a case study in examining the human condition… possibly as it decides to conquer us. Can Melissa McCarthy save the world?

Black Beauty

November 27

Disney+ has one major narrative film release in November, and it’s a new version of Anna Sewell’s beloved novel Black Beauty. Adapted by Ashley Avis, this is the timeless tale of a teenager and the singular bond she forms with a horse that keeps them connected for a lifetime. The 1876 novel was pivotal for a dawning appreciation of the plight of work horses in Victorian England, and the desire to treat animals more humanely. Indeed, the book is narrated from the vantage of the horse!

The new Disney film appears to be updating things, with the male horse of the novel now being voiced by Kate Winslet. It also appears to feature a modern American setting, but with a promising cast that in addition to Winslet includes up-and-comer Mackenzie Foy as heroine Jo Green and Game of Thrones’ Iain Glen as John Manly.

Possessor

November 27 (UK only)

Brandon Cronenberg’s follow up to 2012’s Antiviral is a sci-fi horror thriller which sees a convert corporation develop tech that allows agents to inhabit other people’s bodies and carry out assassinations. Andrea Riseborough stars as the star operative who finds herself getting lost in one of her quarries, while Jennifer Jason Leigh is her handle. Possessor already played the festival circuit and was scheduled for a UK theatrical release at the end of November until a second lockdown was announced. Now the movie will be released on UK Digital Platforms.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Upcoming Movies in November 2020: Streaming, VOD, and Theaters appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/34WP3ry

[topmixtrends]

JOURNEY INTO the Mind’s Eye by Lesley Blanch (1904–2007) was first published 50 years ago. It begins with “the Traveller,” an unnamed family friend dressed in a fur-lined overcoat, who repeatedly breezes into young Blanch’s nursery, proffering gifts: a silver cigarette case from the Caucasus, a chunk of malachite, then, another time, a Kazakh fox-skin cap, all the while recounting legendary Russian tales of Ilya Mourametz, the heroic bogatyr (a kind of Slavic knight), and Konyiok Gorbunok, the little humpbacked horse.

It is a curious, rambling travel book. Within its pages we go to Paris and Siberia, but really it is a love story and, as the title suggests, an internal voyage into the imagination. The Traveller ignites in Blanch a deep and lifelong love for Russia, especially the early 19th-century Russia of Alexander Pushkin, which becomes a giant metaphor for her adult appetites, all pursued with a “drug addict’s intensity.”

Blanch begins writing love letters to the Traveller as a schoolgirl. Then, aged 17, she is seduced by him on the Dijon Express (although in her mind she pretends it is the Trans-Siberian). Later he disappears, and she searches for him frantically.

On publication in 1968, one reviewer dismissed this glamorous, oddball tale as “pomegranate prose.” But given Blanch’s fondness for the jewel-like fruit — and for the “moon-faced and wasp-waisted” dancing girls who juggled them in harems — I like to think she didn’t take offense at this kiss-off. After all, the Traveller had told her that within every pomegranate is “one seed from Eden.”

Romantic and whimsical, yes, but Blanch was no starry-eyed daydreamer. Running just below the surface of her glossy writing is a good deal of common sense and a brazen appetite. Despite working as features editor at British Vogue, she had a strong dislike of killjoy dieticians and freely indulged her “faiblesse” for suet puddings. Aged 99, she claimed that she was still capable of devouring “a Christmas pudding at midnight.”

Journey into the Mind’s Eye, which casually melds fact and fiction, was the first Lesley Blanch book I read, and it left me craving more of everything she had to offer — unabashed exoticism, humor, and lively, pomegranate-laden prose. It was to her food writing, her sketchbooks of culinary adventuring, that I turned to next. These books travel paths equally luscious to the one covered in Journey into the Mind’s Eye, because just as Blanch was a superior traveler, she was also a superior eater. “Travelling widely and eating wildly” was her motto.

Whether in Mexico or Egypt, the Balkans or Yemen, mealtimes were the lifeblood — and often the goals — of her adventures: food was first culture, then code, and, finally, trophy. Moveable feasts. The ultimate mementos.

Her first culinary travelogue, Round the World in Eighty Dishes, was published in 1956, coming out two years after the end of Britain’s postwar rationing. It was the era of Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation and the Suez Crisis. Blanch’s exuberant journeying to such faraway shores, rendered in verbal Technicolor, would have seemed impossible to most. She describes this book, seductively and wonderfully, as her “kitchen-window peepshow.” Like two other great female writer-cooks of the same epoch, Patience Gray (1917–2005) and M. F. K. Fisher (1908–1992), Blanch had an instantly recognizable voice. She was also refreshingly funny and frank, caring less for accurate recipes. “Timidity and prejudice should have no space in the kitchen,” she wrote. How good to hear. How Lesley.

A third of the way into Round the World in Eighty Dishes, Blanch unleashes some particularly honeyed prose for paska, a Russian Easter bread that is, she assures us, “delicious at any time.” In the lengthy introduction above the method, we are taken to Russian Easter services in Nice, Copenhagen, and “even Los Angeles,” but the memory most vividly recounted is in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, at the Russian church on the Rue Daru (that is, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral). There, she recalls, she was:

[S]o carried away that I set fire to myself with the candle I was carrying, and was rescued by a dashing-looking stranger who beat out the flames, and later, taught me my Russian alphabet in icing sugar letters, for he was an émigré who said he’d been a head pastry-cook at the Winter Palace.

Even the most prolific collector of cookbooks would be hard-pressed to find a recipe introduction that could compete with the exoticism of that anecdote.

The opener of From Wilder Shores: The Tables of my Travels (1989), her second food book, begins with a dedication “to my Digestion which has nobly supported so many surprises, trials and unwise indulgences throughout our long years of travel together.”

In Arabia, coffee is drunk from egg-cup-sized finjans, sugared heavily during festivities but unsweetened during mourning periods, “bitter as grief.” In the Balkans, she notes how pure water collected from certain sources and wells is coveted as if it were vintage wine. In Bavaria, driving back from a Wagner festival, drunk on sound and revelry, she considers the diet of mad old King Ludwig, who would eat breakfast at sunset. She also discovers a dish as “rich as Wagner’s music.” It is “Cheese Muff,” and she provides the reader with a recipe — little more than 100 grams of cheddar, butter, breadcrumbs, and eggs — as well as with the suggestion to serve it with dry biscuits and coffee, as “the Muff is on the heavy side.”

In the chapter “Meals on Wheels,” we find Blanch focusing not on “trolleys carrying hot food to the needy” (heaven forbid) but rather on the “whirring and clash of steel on steel — the wheels of express trains hurtling powerfully across limitless tracks.” To read her descriptions of restaurant cars belonging to bygone eras is to weep into your concourse-bought sandwich and Styrofoam cup of coffee. Here, naturally, Blanch recalls her Trans-Siberian train journey, where five days on-board meant “round the clock relays” of stews, fish soup, caviar, black bread, vodka, and Caucasian champagne, kept going, of course, by endless cups of tea from the gurgling samovar. When I undertook that same journey, two years ago, there was vodka, and, of course, tea, but mainly there was greasy, thin solyanka served in a somewhat glum on-board cafe with red faux-leather chairs.

Blanch remembers that when the “satiny expanses” of Lake Baikal came into view, the dining car collectively sprung to their feet to toast the “Holy Sea.” I too paused there, in the depths of winter, to walk across the lake’s frozen surface — but my abiding memory is of that evening, back in the overheated carriage, when the air hummed with the pungent fishy smell of smoked omul carried on-board by almost all of my fellow passengers. Blanch tackles omul in a later chapter of From Wilder Shores, entitled “Russian Traditional”: “Omul is so good that it requires no fancy treatment.” I beg to differ, but that is the situation affecting taste and memory — of course omul is good served differently. As to alcohol, only Armenian brandy seems capable of slaying her. “My hang-over lasted two days and left me in a state of Dostoievskian repentance,” she wrote of it.

I like the fact that even today, in Odessa, at its spectacularly baroque opera house on the Black Sea, one can obtain the same snack between acts that Blanch purchased in Moscow in the early 1960s, namely, “a thick square of white bread with a dollop of caviar on top.” As she rightly says: “Those theatre snacks […] were easy to handle, sustaining, and added a festive touch.”

Back home, or “en poste” with her diplomat-novelist husband, Romain Gary, Blanch travels in her kitchen. “Sometimes I make manti/pilmeny and munch lovingly, recalling both the Afghan wastes, and my journey across Siberia.” Although the more sensitive reader might want to forgo the kicker at the end of the recipe: “In Turkestan the sauce was a rather rank goat cheese, thinned down.” But then, Blanch’s were “cookbooks” unrestricted by their recipes. She could write about mealtimes, food, and eating in a manner so luxurious that the reader need not attempt the recipes at all.

Blanch understood the values attached to cuisine as national identity, knew that behind each dish lay “centuries of history, travel, exploration and adventure.” She also understood that where tourism heavily treads it eclipses culture in its path. For her, it was in the kitchen, and at the family table, where traditions were cherished and fiercely protected.

In re-creating Afghan, Uzbek, and Moroccan dishes — national cuisines so à la mode in the West today — in her books and in her kitchen, Blanch unintentionally proved that she was ahead of the curve. And she offers fitting substitutes for our most faddish of food trends, too. Rather than “smashed avocado toast,” try Blanch’s “Avocado Summer Soup,” mashed with lemon (rather than lime), whipped with yoghurt, stirred through with a “breakfast cup” (no idea) of water, and then chilled over night. Delicious.

This summer, NYRB Classics has rereleased Journey into the Mind’s Eye in paperback, with an introduction by the author’s goddaughter, Georgia de Chamberet. If only a publisher would refresh Blanch’s culinary books and kickstart a revival of her food writing. Her culinary prose is so enjoyable and so unique that it cries out to be introduced to new generations of readers. Blanch believed, absolutely, in the power of an open mind and a good appetite. How well she applied this adage to all aspects of her long, globetrotting life, and what useful advice it still is to us today, wherever we choose to travel.

¤

Caroline Eden is a UK-based writer contributing to the Guardian, BBC Radio 4, and The Telegraph. She is the author of Samarkand: Recipes and Stories from Central Asia and the Caucasus and the forthcoming Black Sea.

¤

Banner image by Michael Himbeault.

The post A Kitchen Window Peepshow: Eating Wildly and Traveling Widely with Lesley Blanch appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

from Los Angeles Review of Books https://ift.tt/2AFisJN

[dramasprite-blog]

#TTTOPart #TTTOPlikes #TOPlikes #TTTOPsart 170106 @choi_seung_hyun_tttop 's like 💖💚🎨 Cy Twombly ‘Wilder Shores of Love’, 1985 Oil-based house paint , oil (oil paint stick), coloured pencil, lead pencil on wooden panel, 140 x 120 cm Private Collection (At @centrepompidou - November 30, 2016 through April 24, 2017) ➡ @brettgorvy IG The 2 paintings called "The Wilder shores of love" in 1984 and 1985, after Lesley Blanch’s famous novel, were produced after he came back from Yemen and Egypt, where he spent a long time in Luxor with his son Alessandro. They are one of the many examples where literature and history inspired his work. "Cy Twombly: "Wilder Shores of Love" 1985 "There is a frequent adoption of an explicitly female voice in Twombly's art, be it Sappho's poetry or Lesley Blanch's "The Wilder Shores of Love", a book which treats the theme of Western women who succeeded in living, often en travesti, in the Middle East." (Art in America by Brooks Adams) In "Wilder Shores of Love" a blob of green vegetation (a hydrangea?) rests at the bottom left edge of the picture and two red phalluses sprout from this green chunk of matter, ejaculating red paint. The protrusions are unmistakably penises, but at the same time they are also paintbrushes or even pens. The source matter, the green blob, could be a magma of memories and emotions, full of myths and poetry; the paint that spews from the phallic brushes achieves a kind of volcanic eloquence. Many critics have struggled to find a place for Twombly in an overarching narrative of twentieth-century art because he puts the flesh before the word and pleasure before meaning. This is art as pastoral otium, at ease with exile and mortality. (Craig Burnett, Timesonline)" "Writing on paintings is like voice-over in films: violently frowned upon by the purists. It's an important part of Twombly's manner. Here, the pictorial aspect is an abstract allusion to one of the classical forms of landscape painting. The huge scrawled title, though, leads us right up  to something cryptic and private, a message sent to a very few people. The more the painter writes, the less we know how to read." (at Center Pompidu)

[thefugitivesaint]

Lesley S. Blanch (1904-2007), 'Shower-Proof', ''The Tatler'', Christmas Issue, 1927 Source