The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater: Read Along Thread

[Dillidilly]

Here we go people!

I thought we could start reading the Introduction from October 15th at a gentle pace to allow people to join the thread. Then all set for Chapter 1 on November 1st.

The Christmas Chronicles is currently just over £20 on Amazon. Maybe people could share all the options for those who are just joining us, who still want to get a copy.

I'm hoping this thread will be a lovely, gentle, uplifting transition into the Christmas period where we can share our thoughts, recipe attempts and inspiration from Nigel x

@HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule and @FreezerBird of course you can discuss it here! It looks a beautiful book x

Either way is fine by me. Will report back.

@FreezerBird doesn’t mean you can’t have your own thread too of course - there might be a lot of people interested in a Germanic Christmas thread actually since Scandinavia and parts of Europe would be heavily influenced -and I’d definitely try and keep up with it too!😊🎄

I think it would be lovely to keep all lovely book chat together, esp as Nigel isn't a diary, so there will be chunks of days with no readalong.

I think the photos are often personal ones, I follow him on Insta and his garden is a delight.

I shall confess that Nigel on the telly is not for me. I want my Nigel between the pages of a book. I adore him on paper. His writing is sublime. On the telly I find him a bit awkward and cringey. The whole "here's a tiny chunk of organic blue stilton I needed to use up" etc thing, and I just think he himself probably feels awkward in front of the camera.

I've actually re-evaluated my feelings about him over the years. I remember when Toast was on TV and I was "who does this guy think he is? He's a sleb chef, why would he think we'd be interested in his life story". I'd only seem him fettling around in his beautiful fridge for his "leftovers" at that point.

Buying his books and reading his writing was a revelation and I love him now.

I do agree - I don’t actually watch his programmes anymore (I don’t watch any terrestrial television and very little on demand), and I think you’re right - he’s much more comfortable at home or with friends, cooking and writing, and that’s okay with me.

I don't watch Nigella, for the same reasons.

I've just ordered the Advent book-couldn't resist!

Mind you I did like to watch him some years ago before DH and I became thoroughly disillusioned with television. I never had a problem with the lovingly wrapped yak butter and/or ‘simple’ leftovers of truffles and wagyu beef element of it, we just used to chuckle to ourselves at that. I certainly don’t begrudge him the financial status he’s built up to allow him to live that way, and I don’t regard it as pretentious at all - it feels very natural to me and I if had the money it’s 100% guaranteed I’d be enjoying the finer things in life with just as much gentle gusto (if there is such a thing...).

@Shelleyjelly80 I’ve been SO GOOD. Not even peeking inside on Amazon...

Joining in to I bought the book in spring, as you do, and started reading it then. I didn't get very far as many of the recipes are meaty and we're a veggie household.
I'm up for a read along for the festive spirit though.
Nigel did a MN webchat a few years ago, he was lovely and gave me some good advice.
We (DCs and I, not Nigel obviously) do joke about the ridiculous ingredients he has lying around in his fridge though.

@FreezerBird if you do start a separate thread for Advent please share the link here...got my copy & it looks as good as we'd hoped...

The advert book looks lovely

Advent rather

@FreezerBird

I don't watch Nigella, for the same reasons.

Yes! She also writes beautifully.

@LaChatte

Joining in to I bought the book in spring, as you do, and started reading it then. I didn't get very far as many of the recipes are meaty and we're a veggie household. I'm up for a read along for the festive spirit though. Nigel did a MN webchat a few years ago, he was lovely and gave me some good advice. We (DCs and I, not Nigel obviously) do joke about the ridiculous ingredients he has lying around in his fridge though.

I remember those chef webchats! Nigel was lovely (of course) and just seemed so thrilled that people wanted to talk to him Delia (iirc) managed to answer thousands of questions almost beating Alistair Campbell's record Nigella kept saying "look in my new book" or "I cover this in Feast" and was a crashing disappointment. I forgive her though because her Christmas book is great.

He answered one of my questions! :)

Are we allowed to go a bit ahead of schedule? I had this book for a couple of years and have wanted to make the brandy mincemeat. (Nov 10). With the encouragement of this read along, I finally made it today. It is my first homemade mincemeat and it tastes so much better than shop bought. It is also a lot simpler to make then I imagined. Only thing I failed on was I cooked the brandy instead of adding it to cooled mincemeat. Oops. Hope it is not needed to preserve the mixture. I’m planning to make the panettone mincemeat sandwich from this book, Nigel’s mincemeat cheesecake and Nigella’s frangipane mince pies with them.

@ChildrenGrowingUpTooFast you can just add the same quantity of brandy again to the cooled mince meat!

@ChildrenGrowingUpTooFast of course! This is meant to be a lovely, easy going thread x

@HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule I didn’t think of that before putting them into jars. That’s so obvious. I have put them into the fridge, I’m sure it will keep there.

@HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule

Ohhhh *@PocketFluff* I don’t smoke and don’t like the smell of it at all except that it reminds me so much of my grandparents whose Christmases were my Christmases as a child and whose home was my happy place for as long as they lived, so tobacco is actually a very nostalgic aroma for me...do you remember where you got the candle from as I might have to have it?

It's a very subtle smoky smell, more of a rich smell if that makes sense? But very warm and homely. It's from here instagram.com/clareabeauswaxcompany?utm_medium=copy_link At the moment you have to order via Instagram or Facebook but her website is coming soon.

@ChildrenGrowingUpTooFast I like to break the lid of a warm mince pie and spoon a teaspoon of brandy on before splodging in cream. 😋 mmmm

I got my in and on the wrong way round. It’s been a long day.

Hello everyone. I started the much anticipated introduction early yesterday morning. I crept downstairs and made myself a big cup of Earl Grey tea and a flask of coffee to follow and came back to bed to savour the quietness of the house, whilst reading those first paragraphs. How wonderful! His writing is just so magical. There were so many beautiful lines on that first page! “Winter feels like a renewal….” and he goes on to talk about the stifling heat of the summer. This really resonated with me as I struggle with the heat but do like crisp bright autumn/winter sunshine. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say how the coming of winter energises them - how wonderful to reframe an “unpopular season “ in this way.
Like some of you have mentioned, my DH struggles to watch Nigel on TV. He finds him too earnest. He knew I was doing this read along & I was telling him how much I was looking forward to it. He was ribbing me about it. I sent him this quote in a text “Winter is as deadly as she is beautiful!” I got an eye roll as a response. 😆
I’m trying to ration myself to a few paragraphs a day, so that I can read something every morning before work. I find it very calming.

Aah I've just found this thread, this is definitely my sort of thing! Will get onto buying myself a second hand copy pronto.

My DH also isn't keen on Nigel as he's only seen him on TV, and I'm always telling him that it's Nigel's writing that's so good, how interesting that this is obviously a common theme!

Really looking forward to some evening readalongs, sadly my gorgeous Neom Christmas candles are all in storage thanks to current building work so I'll have to find something else to get me in the spirit instead... I have been wanting one of those numbered advent candles to burn every day so maybe I should invest in one of those.