Ottolenghi Advocaat

Efforts to get in the Christmas spirit have taken a literal turn today. My tree is up, shopping well do the way to completion, and I've made my own Advocaat using a recipe from Ottolenghi's Instagram - which I think is properly attributed to Verena Lochmuller who co-authored the latest cookbook (Comfort) and seems fabulous. 

I've never really been an advocate woman - Snowballs were the Christmas cocktail you'd be offered in my teens but I wanted to seem sophisticated so avoided sweet creamy drinks in favour of hard spirits and dry sherry - which I liked a lot and still do, but sophistication continues to elude me. 

Verena's Advocaat is very similar to Whipkül which in turn has a lot to do with egg nog. There's nothing more luxurious in the depths of winter than something rich with cream and egg yolks, warm with spirits, and sweet with sugar. She promises that it will be stable in the fridge for about 2 months, I think to be safe I'd like to drink it faster.

The recipe and method is simple. Take 12 egg yolks (better plan on making a lot of White Ladies or a huge meringue with the leftover whites) and lightly beat them with 500g of icing sugar - do not let the sugar sit in the yolks for long as it makes them hard. Add the scraped innards of a Vanilla pod, pour in and mix 300ml of double cream, and finally 500ml of alcohol Don't over whip either as the air will work it's way out and leave gaps at the top of your bottles. 

Alcohol wise you could use vodka, white rum, golden rum, or brandy. My preference was for a golden rum for the flavour, white rum or vodka would have been cheaper, but if price was my main concern I'd have just bought a bottle of Warninks. Pour into a large jug through a fine mesh sieve to catch any bits and then decant into sterile bottles or jar. Keep in the fridge and use within 2 months. Have a look at the original insta post from Verena or Ottolenghi for a couple of serving suggestions. 

These quantities made about 1.3 litres of alcoholic custard - it would be easy, and sensible to half them. My plan is to give half away instead 

A Book For Christmas - Selma Lagerlöf

I haven't really been feeling particularly Christmasy so far - and yes I know it's still early, but this preparatory part of the season is the bit I normally enjoy. December has so far been a blur, work has been hard (hit by IT issues) and I've been too tired to really do much more than sleep when I get home. Tonight though my mother battled through awful traffic and worse weather to help me get a tree - it took us almost an hour to get barely a mile and back. Mum is worried that I'll be disappointed with the admittedly lopsided tree we found at the first shop we went to, but it was not an evening to traipse around garden centres, supermarkets, or DIY shops in the hopes of finding something better. 

The lopsided bit is facing the corner of the room and doesn't much matter, the rest of the tree is a nice shape, it was a very acceptable price, and I think it has character. I've started candying oranges, think I'll make biscuits at the weekend, started work on a Christmas stocking, have my first card up, and finished A Book For Christmas last night - so I'm slowly getting there.

I bought this mostly because Penguin sent some really lovely promotional material into the shop with it, it was enough to make me look and that was enough to make me buy. Promotional material works. I wasn't familiar with Lagerlöf but the mood isn't far from Hans Christian Anderson - veering dark and with a strong Christian moral. I'd say it's a collection of 2 halves - the first 4 stories I really liked, the last 4 not so much. A Book For Christmas opens the collection and is charming, The Legend of St. Lucia's Day is lengthy and old fashioned but satisfying. The Princess of Babylon and the Rat Trap both hold the balance between entertainment and moral in a way that works for a modern reader.

Redbreast did not work so well for me - too much of a Sunday school feel to it, and perhaps the same for In Nazareth, although the end to that has a kick to it that lifts it a little. The Skull is an interesting mix of Gothic horror and Christian homily that sit uneasily together in my mind, and the same with the Animals' New Year Night. 

What I do like about all of these stories is the old-fashioned sense of real danger from the weather, from poverty, from starvation, and from violence. On a day I saw an advert for a children's book called Krampus' Bad Fur Day I'm feeling a need for some dark to flavour the cosiness of the season. 

Murder by Candlelight - selected by Cecily Gayford

Why yes, I did actually buckle down and finally finishing a pile of half read books this weekend, and I'm continuing the good work into the week - it's a nice feeling to see the pile by my bed diminish to slightly more manageable proportions. 

I bought Murder by Candlelight, this year's Christmas crime collection from Profile in the Carlisle Waterstones when I had an hour to spare between my bus south from the Birders and the train further south. I don't know Carlisle at all well, but it's a good sort of place to have a bit of time between trains - the town centre is an easy walk, even with luggage, in pursuit of a hot coffee, decent sandwich, and emergency reading. This book turned out to be inspired choice for the journey.

There are three train stories in it and they all take place on the line that runs from Carlisle to Birmingham. I started reading with the Dorothy L. Sayers story as I left Carlisle to find that the characters were also on a train leaving Carlisle (they got off at Rugby, I only went as far as Birmingham). It's a better story than a lot of Sayers shorts I've read. By chance as I changed trains at New Street I picked Cyril Hare's It Takes Two - the denouement takes place in New Street. Further investigation revealed Freeman Wills Crofts The Mystery of the Sleeping-Car Express where bad things happen near Preston. The worst thing that has ever happened to me at Preston was a rail replacement bus service pre-lockdown. 

Fortunately, this last set of train journeys was entirely trouble free, everything ran on time, there was no problem getting seats and I had lots of reading time to enjoy a few murders in. Murder by Candlelight is the strongest collection I've read from Profile. there isn't a dud in it, and Cyril Hare's It Takes Two was a particular gem. Simon Brett's 'How's Your Mother' is another one - it runs close to humour until just before the end when it veers into something altogether more unsettling. I think it's from 1985s 'A Box of Tricks', and owes a good bit to Physcho. 

A really satisfactory collection of mysteries and an excellent stocking filler of a book. 

The Dead of Winter - Sarah Clegg

I have an advance review copy of this book with a cover I actually like more than the finished hardback which is saving me from buying the finished hardback - something I'm rarely tempted to do, but I loved this book so much that I'd make an exception for it. 

The Dead of Winter is a survey of the Demons, Witches, and Ghosts of Christmas and it is an absolute delight - another easy entry into my top ten books of the year list when the time comes to put that together. Sarah Clegg is a knowledgable, academically sound, and overall amusing guide to the darker side of Christmas and where it comes from. 

The answers may be surprising depending on what you already know, or think you know, about Christmas traditions. The short version is that some things - like carnival have roots going back to antiquity, and some traditions are only a few hundred years old. We had mostly moved away from the darker side of the festive season, but the growing popularity of wassailing, Krampus runs, mummers plays and the Mari Llwyd snapping horse heads suggest we need something to balance the jollines of Santa and the saccharine effects of the John Lewis Christmas advert. Or maybe that as Christmas has increasingly become about children, we're looking for some more adult traditions to embrace.

Whatever theories you favour there's plenty to think about here. Clegg never mocks the eccentricities she meets - which might have been tempting for the winter solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, she does invite us to laugh with her at how she manages to scare herself on a pre-dawn Year Walk in an attempt to discover who in the parish will die in the next year. She doesn't believe in the possibility, but on a cold Christmas eve morning well before sunrise having observed the whole ritual - well then it's hard not to believe just a little in anything at all. 

This isn't a particularly dark book and certainly not a how to guide for dark rituals, but very much a survey of recorded folklore and how it's evolved. Exactly the thing to settle down with on a dark night and make you wonder if it's worth leaving out an offering of food and an open window on the 13th of December in the hope of being taken up by Saint Lucy's wild hunt and riding across the winter sky with her. 

Nights Out At Home - Jay Rayner

I've always enjoyed Jay Rayner's restaurant reviews so was happy to accept a review copy of this book, expecting to enjoy it. I'm still surprised by how much I love it. It's an easy book to dip in and out of, though once you start reading it's even easier to just carry on. Rayner, I imagine, must be an engaging host or dinner companion; amusing and generous with his knowledge, serious about what he does but not taking himself too seriously here, and delightfully enthusiastic about the the food that has hit the spot. 

Nights Out at Home is a collection of 60 recipes and all sorts of stories from 25 years as a restaurant critic and perfect for any foodie that likes to try and recreate a good meal out back at home. Some of the dishes in here are complicated, but they'll make you a better cook (and so will having a good look at some of the carefully chosen restaurant menus) some are perfect in their simplicity, and one sets out to create a luxuriously home made version of the Gregg's steak bake - an endeavor that so strongly reminded me of someone I used to work with (an amazing cook) that I'll be sending him a copy of this. 

We don't sell as many cookbooks as I'd like in Leicester, and Amazons ratings have this at number 10 in women's biographies which is impressive but confusing. My overall feeling though is that it's not quite getting the attention it deserves. As a practical cookbook it wouldn't be my first choice, but as a really enjoyable read with insight into the role of a restaurant critic, professional kitchens, and the people who run and work in them it's a treat. 

It would make an excellent Christmas present, not least because it's going to be perfect reading both in anticipation of Christmas lunch or dinner, and then on a full stomach whilst it all digests. I've had a thoroughly lovely weekend reading it in between pottering around cooking a little more elaborately than I have in a while - bad weather blew out our plans for a good country walk followed by a pub lunch so we went all out at home. Which is another thing to like about this book - its enthusiasm for other cooks and their work is inspiring me to pull down a couple of so far underused books and give them more attention too. 

Murder under the Mistletoe - The Reverend Richard Coles

I started reading Richard Coles first murder mystery (Murder Before Evensong) in proof form just before it first came out, but only read the first few chapters before getting distracted by other books. Since then he had joined the list of things people keep telling me I would love to the point that I stubbornly refuse to read them. Yesterday I got a copy of 'Murder Under the Mistletoe' read it in a sitting and have to concede that everybody who told me I'd love him was on the money. 

This is the beauty of a short book (around 140 pages in this instance with an excellent recipe for bread sauce thrown in). It's not a big thing to invest the time in it, and as 'Murder Under the Mistletoe' charmed on a number of levels I will be going back and starting from the beginning. 

I liked it as a murder mystery, it's clever with a great ending which I can't discuss without spoilers but I thought it was satisfyingly nuanced. I like the Clements, Canon Daniel Clement is thoughtful, human, clever, and compassionate - there's a satisfying scene where he immediately stops some mild bullying. His mother Audrey is a splendid creation and so is brother Theo. The de Floures family from the big house are well drawn too, and Mrs March is a masterpiece.

I really liked the attention to food and drink, and the obvious knowledge behind it - I wonder if the Reverend would appreciate that I'm writing this with an excellent glass of 2011 Côte-Rôtie to hand (I'm certainly appreciating it) or that he inspired me to cook venison tonight... 

More than anything though I love how this reminds me of E M Delafield's Provincial Lady. Coles has set his books in the late 1980s - a nice touch. For anyone middle aged now it's long enough go for a touch of nostalgia, but not so far back as to need much explaining, I dated it from David and Ruth Archer's wedding. It's another smart touch from a smart writer. Mobile phones and the the internet are not conducive to convincing cosy crime, the 80s still feel familiar to many of us, there's no need to over-explain anything but there are a few plot details that wouldn't work in a contemporary setting, including perhaps some of the social nuance.

The Clements are solidly middle class, Audrey, Daniels mothers, attempts to impress the local gentry are treated with humour and sympathy - there's a lovely passage where Daniel worries if the de Floures, who have invited themselves for Christmas dinner will be stilton scoop or knife people. I do not like stilton, but I do have a scoop, and have given a few as presents*. The nuance is continued through wine choices - German Sekt rather than Champagne - not as popular as it was, croft original sherry, a white Burgandy bought as a gift from the big house that will be nice, but isn't the best, at a time when the best was more affordable. There are dozens of moments like this and they're as sharp and delightful as I could hope for. 

*A benefit of living in the home county of Stilton is that if you do like it and are sensible enough to go to the market here you get excellent Stilton for about a third of the price of supermarkets or cheesemongers. Having a whole wheel of it on the table is a question of having enough people to eat it, not needing a bank loan to buy it and scooping os very much an option. 

The Wood at Midwinter - Susanna Clarke

This is a very pretty book but it has - not exactly annoyed me, but it's not to my mind pretty enough to warrant the £9.99 price tag, and there isn't enough story to justify it either. It is not a good sign when an explanation of what you've just read takes almost as long as the story it explains, non of which is a reflection on Clarke's writing which is as perfectly crafted as ever. 

Victoria Sawdon's illustrations are charming enough but you'd have to like them a lot more than I do to buy the book for them (my copy is a review one from Bloomsbury, which I'll pass on to a hopefully more enthusiastic colleague). I liked 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' but (ironically given how short this is) thought it was over long - The Woods at Midwinter is imagined in the same world, it is very much for fans of both Clarke and 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'. 

This would have worked beautifully as an add on in an exclusive edition, and as it stands will probably find itself in any number of Christmas stockings (or equivalent, we're a stocking family for this kind of thing), there will be people who love it, are entranced by the images, and feel very happy with their purchase, but I'm in a full on Scrooge mood with this one to the point that I've deleted several mean spirited sentences, but in the end I can't even bring myself to really be down on the publisher for producing it. What I do know is that it's bothered me enough to write this to get it off my chest.

The Kings's Bride - E.T.A. Hoffmann

How do you catagorise E.T.A Hoffman? Romantic, surreal, magical realism, gothic, horror? I'm not really sure, I think he's mostly files under fiction which tells the reader nothing. Perhaps influential is the word that really sums him up - a writer who's work and imagination still permeates popular culture but there's a good chance you've never heard of (I think anyone reading this will have heard of him, but we're a select group).

The King's Bride is at the lighter end of Hoffmann's output - mostly a comedy with some excellent jokes and only a few horrifying moments. Anna is happily engaged to her neighbours son, Amandus, currently at university and fancying himself a poet whilst she remains at home and concerns herself with the kitchen garden. Her father, something of a philosopher, astronomist, and astrologer, spends his days studying the sciences from the comfort of his tower. 

One day Anna discovers a gold ring on a carrot in her garden, puts it on and finds herself engaged to Corduanspitz - a gnome, or possibly the king of carrots, which is a much worse thing to be than a gnome. Anna is at first horrified, and then reconciled as she's led to believe she will reign over the finest vegetable garden in the world, and then horrified again as she realises she's being changed into something more like her prospective husband. Will Amandus forget his poetry for long enough to save the day and his true love? Will her father maybe manage it instead? Or will Corduanspitz win out and carry Anna away, and what of his feud with the radishes?

In the spirit of any romance worth the name there's a happy outcome for Anna, and plenty of amusement for the reader - the portrait of Amandus as an undergraduate over confident in his own abilities as a poet is an absolute treat, and there's more than enough unease behind the comedy to make things interesting. 

This translation is part of Alma Classics 101 page classics series - a genius concept. It's not so much that my concentration is shot for long books (it is slightly) but that middle age has tired me out. I don't currently have the energy to read as much as I'd like to, or the time (because I fall asleep). Novellas are satisfying, they're also a fabulous way to test the waters before investing in a major work by a classic novelist, or as the season closes in on us, a really good small gift for Christmas.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

I've been in Scotland for a couple of days seeing family which has been lovely, something we did on Tuesday was go and see The Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galasheils. I remember this project in progress (vaguely) and just as vaguely remembered that it had ended up in the Borders but had never thought to go and see it. My stepmother and father had tried a couple of times but it had always been closed - it's currently not open on Sundays or Mondays - which feels a bit odd, but very Borders - there's a few visitor attractions not open on weekends - but if ever a thing had Sunday trip out written all over it, it's surely this. The moral of this story is definitely to check opening times before setting off, which I did.

Entry is £10.50 each for adults, or £25 for a season ticket. The day ticket is for the whole day and you can come and go as much as you please in that time. Both the woman at the ticket desk and the attendant in the gallery recommended taking a break for coffee and a walk - it's good advice because there's an overwhelming amount of detail to pick through and one visit isn't enough. Taking a break and going back for a last look before car parking ran out revealed lots of things I'd missed first time around. 

The tapestry itself is a remarkable thing - about 143 metres of panels illustrating episodes from Scottish history and culture. It was finished in 2013 at the height of the referendum debate and definitely captures something of the mood and pride in that moment. The original idea came from Alexander McCall Smith,  Alistair Moffat formed the narrative it would take, and  Andrew Crummy designed the panels. Over a 1000 people were involved in the embroidering in groups the length and breadth of the country - mostly women. Each panel took around 500 hours to create. 

It's an incredible project. There are things which would not look the same if it was designed now - at least I hope the panels that touch on colonialism would be different, and that the interpretive material that goes with them would be very different, but as a reflection of how we thought even 12 years ago it's a fair representation. 

What is remarkable, and the thing I found most powerful about the tapestry was the sense of time, craft, and effort that went into making it. The makers could choose the stitches they used and there's space on each panel for personalisation. All the makers are named under each panel. It's an awe inspiring achievement, stunning bit of craft and collaboration, and a really impressive bit of art. I found it genuinely moving and at times almost overwhelmingly emotional to look at.

The Borders railway stops very close to the gallery, so it's easily accessible from Edinburgh even without a car. There's also good cheap parking. I love that this is in Galashiels where it's a centerpiece to the town and reflects back something of the area's textile history, and not just another thing to see in Edinburgh or Glasgow too. Definitely make time for this if you're anywhere in the area.

Your Guide To Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village - Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper

Happy Diwali and Halloween to anyone celebrating either - fireworks are in full swing in Leicester, where I expect them to be going off into the small hours. My Halloween celebration was going to a Bloomsbury Raven showcase in the Gothic bar at the Saint Pancras hotel last night - it's a beautiful venue that I've  never had an excuse to go into before and never quite wanted to go into alone.

One of the books in my goody bag was Your Guide To Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village and it seemed as good a way to pass the train journey home as any, and so it proved to be. It's not an easy book to define - a small humourous hardback that you can easily read in half an hour or so - the illustrations lift it into something more, but it's basically a stocking filler destined to live by a toilet (do people still have toilet books? They were kind of a feature of my childhood, lots of houses had them, but it feels like a vaguely unhygienic concept now).

Still, if you enjoy an Agatha Christie adaptation or have watched more than 2 episodes of Midsummer Murders this will make you laugh, it's family friendly and the illustrations keep the jokes fresh with details repeated readings/viewings will keep on revealing. It's a nicely silly Halloween read too so although there's not much to say about it, I'd still recommend this as one of the better quality examples of the genre and a bit of fun if you find yourself in a murderous mood. 

Rivals

This week has flown by in a blur of still having the same cold (or maybe it's a new one) and work being full on. I am very much in need of a holiday, and happily one is not far away. Meanwhile the clocks going back - always my favourite day of the year, it's the one where the day actually feels long enough for a change and I don't feel like I'm running to stand still.

I've celabrated this by making a batch of quince jelly, this years mincemeat, and mixing up a bottle of mixed spice - all things that make me happy. I've also watched the last episode of Jilly Cooper's Rivals. It's almost a decade since I last tried reading a Cooper - I hated Jump and couldn;t actually finish it. In the interveneing years I even got rid of my once beloved copy of Riders, I can't imagine I could stomach that now either. But I've loved watching Rivals, it's fabulous television. 

In my late teens/early adult days Cooper was a guilty pleasure who I genuinley beleaved captured something vital about the late 70s and 1980s. She was also the sort of writer that an earnest young woman felt the need to defend herself for reading back in the day. I think if I re read those books now I'd still think they reflected something of the time they were written, but probably not things I want to remember. 

The genius of the tv series has been to present itself as a period drama, capture the brash optomism and glamour of the era for the well to do, and absolutly ignore all the hardship of the time - because these books were always about escapism. The casting has also been genius, Alex Hassel as Rupert Campbell-Black absolutly has the neccesary charisma for the role and is much more convincing than previous actors who have attempted the role, but there are so many brilliant turns in this, especially from the women.

Which is another thing this adaptation gets right, the female characters here might not get the lines, they don't in the books either, but whilst the men get to chew scenery with gusto, those women are bringing the depth to the story (in amongst all the bonking). The attention to detail is also phenomanal, along with all the small jokes and references - right up to the cliffhangers it ends with - please let there be another series.

I couldn't honestly recommend reading Jilly Cooper now, but absolutly watch this to get the sense of what made her books beloved in the first place. 

Charity Girl - Georgette Heyer #1970Club

I hadn't given the 1970 club much thought - works been busy and the commitments are stacking up, but mid week I had an idle look to see if Heyer had published anything - I knew it was towards the end of her life. 

She had, Charity Girl, though initially, I started reading Lady of Quality (1972) because I mixed them up. The later books are not Heyer's best, but having waded through Charity Girl I'm wondering if it's the worst book she ever wrote? There would certainly be an argument for it.

The faults are many - too much slang, endlessly repetitive, main characters who are essentially unappealing, and spend so little time on the page together that there's no sense of chemistry, a plot that doesn't make a great deal of sense, not much happens, and a complete lack of the humour that I associate with Heyer. She was elderly at this point, and not enjoying the best of health, and maybe that's why this one is such a stinker.

There are a couple of redeeming features - as Heyer gets older her heroines move out of their teens or very early 20s into their mid 20s and their are no more heros decades older than the lady. In this book there's a lot of discussion about a perfectly pleasant young woman - the charity girl of the title - who finds herself in a household of bullies. She runs away with the hope of finding a home with her grandfather, gets taken up by the hero who has briefly met her, and then deposited for safe keeping with his best friend and eventual love interest. But 1970 seems late for a discussion of how limited women's prospects were outside of marriage and as it goes, Cherry has found friends and we never feel like she won't be alright. 

Otherwise the characters are all well worn versions from previous books, and something that might have worked as a novella or a short story is dragged out to a tedious length. There's also an unpleasant kind of snobbishness running through the narrative about Cherry - her family is fairly awful, but that's not her fault, and frequent discussion about how it would be a disgrace to marry her and something the hero would never lower himself to do grates a little.

I'm not sorry I read it, apart from anything else it's a fair reminder that if this is where critics started it's no surprise they're critics, but there is something a little sad about seeing a writer I love at her worst. 

Starling House - Alix E. Harrow

Another week, another visit to the dentist. The filling I had last week had 'lifted' so it was kind of loose and scratching the inside of my cheek, but still in firmly enough to need drilling out, and altogether it's been a nuisance. I now have a new filling and a lot of paranoia as my dentist clearly has no faith in this one lasting any longer than the 4 days the previous effort managed. She's away on holiday next week but assured me one of her colleagues would do a temporary fix if needed. Not encouraging. 

Starling House was my Cheltenham book and read mostly for work. I came at it with limited expectations but ended up really enjoying it. It's an excellent autumn choice - full of Gothic (specifically Southern Gothic) atmosphere. It riffs smartly on Beauty and the Beast and the Hades and Persephone myth whilst making something almost benign out of the haunted house trope. 

Opal Jewell lost her mother 10 years ago, since then she's done lied, forged, and connived her way to keeping her brother with her and getting by with the hope she can find a way out of their small town, dead-end life for him. Then one day she finds the gates of Starling House open for her - it and it's owner have a decidedly grim reputation in town, but it calls to her one outcast to another. She takes up a suspiciously well-paid job there as a cleaner and gets a much closer look at some of the house's secrets. 

Unfortunately for all Opal isn't the only one interested in those secrets. There's a threatening corporate outfit who would also very much like to know what Starling House is and how they can exploit it, and they're an entirely credible threat. Harrow also explores the legacy of slavery, abuse, and generational trauma, but with a reasonably light hand. It's enough to give the book substance without overwhelming the reader in misery. Overall the book is a slow burner with a lot of atmosphere balancing the early lack of action. 

The tropes and influences are well warn, but Starling House does it better than most of the examples I can think of, so I don't mind that at all. Harrow has written Young Adult in the past and the only real criticism I have of this book is that her main characters read a good few years younger than their stated ages of late 20s and early 30s. In a charitable mood, I could put that down to their personal histories - Opal's younger brother seems more mature than she does, so maybe she's meant to read like this. It's probably also part of what makes this feel like a book that would be suitable for anyone from youngish teen upwards, and after a summer of fantasy books heavy on smut and violence, it's been a relief to read something more thoughtful and low-key.

Altogether a hit for me; a smart, well crafted, Gothic fairy tale with excellent world building and convincingly fallible characters. I'd describe it as solid rather than brilliant, and mean it as a compliment.

A Lively Midwinter Murder - Katy Watson

I'm more or less over my Cheltenham cold - still coughing but mercifully no longer snotty, and wondering how it's almost half way through October already. I'm normally a bit further ahead with Christmas plans by now but I'm not really feeling it this year - except for the Christmas books which are filtering in at work and turning me thoughts somewhat festive. Or murderous seeing as it's crime and dark folklore I'm mostly being drawn towards. 

A Lively Midwinter Murder is the fourth outing for the 3 Dahlias, as a series it continues to go from strength to strength. Do our actresses meet a more than statistically likely amount of murders - yes, but it's not as if celebrity circles are scandal or crime-free. The motivation in this book is also the most compelling one yet. The setting is atmospheric and fun, the characters continue to develop into believable people, and the further involvement of the ladies various partners is a nice touch - it makes those relationships more convincing as well. 

I really like the way Katy Watson evokes golden age atmosphere and tropes in a contemporary setting as well. Not everybody can carry this trick off as well as she does, and I'm wondering if the key here is the strong friendship between the 3 Dahlia's themselves. I can't think of another series or book that has this mix of 3 women of different ages negotiating life, love, and career whilst solving crime together. If anyone has a recommendation though, I'd love to hear it. 

The central friendship is far more important than any background romances which also makes a pleasant change. I love the relationship between Lord Peter and Harriet Vane as much as the next person, and between every other detective and their significant other, or the relationship between Lord Peter and his Bunter for that matter (and so on) but an equal friendship without social hierarchy, gender, or job in the way is a nice touch. 

In short, an excellent Christmas mystery with ruined weddings, snow storms, ghost stories, a Scottish castle, mince pies, and murder for lovers of the cosier sort of crime to look forward to this November (I've only just realised that I read an advanced review copy and didn't think to check the publication date until this moment)

Cheltenham Literature Festival Set Up

I spent last week helping set up for Cheltenham Literature festival - it;s one of the oldest, and though I can't easily find specific information on this, I think probably one of the UKs largest too - there are 400 events over 10 days with some really big names attached in venues all over the town as well as the Montpellier gardens sight, it's definitely not small.

It's by far the largest thing I've been involved in, and it was fascinating. We built 3 bookshops from the floor up, 2 of them on a grand scale in 4 days, Moved tons of stock and furniture, and saw some of the effort that goes into making something like this come together. I left on the first day of events as work needed me back in Leicester - I have mixed feelings about leaving halfway through. I loved the setup and meeting colleagues, and as a Cheltenham first-timer, it was good to have the more gentle introduction before all the crazy stuff that can go wrong with live events kicked in - the last-minute cancellations are wild. I also caught a cold that would have made the next few days miserable...

On the other hand I'm missing some amazing events and the chance to say hello to some people I'd love to have met. But there will be other opportunities to do that, and I'm more inclined to go to a book festival as a paying customer after this. As a none driver I've looked at headline events and train fairs in the past and thought no. Hours of cross checking events over the last few days has taught me that the majority of the things I want to see would not be headline events and are fairly reasonably priced - I'd think about it for next year.

The best thing might well have been seeing all the books - more stock than we have in our local branch across all the sights and an emphasis on new titles with supporting backlist for speakers, not all of which we will see in Leicester. I knew this about books generally, but unpacking pallet after pallet of them is something like looking through old photograph albums. Books about art, books about wine, books written by people I'm friendly with, books published by people I'm friendly with, books about people I've crossed paths with, books I've loved, and books I've loathed. Day to day this is not how I interact with stock at work where it's the odd thing that strikes a chord. On this scale the whole orchestra was playing. 

How To Solve Your Own Murder - Kristen Perrin

I picked this up mostly because I liked the cover and there's a bit of buzz about it - it looked like it was going to be a decent easy read at the cosier end of the crime scale. And more or less it is exactly that, but a quote from the mail that says "This has a Netflix series written all over it..." probably more or less sums it up. There's lots of great visuals in here and an intriguing plot, it would televise nicely, but it doesn't quite hang together as a book. 

I didn't check until I'd finished reading but Kristen Perrin is American, she moved to England to do a masters and then a PHD after several years as a bookseller. It probably explains a few of the anomalies - the most glaring of which seems to be a lack of understanding of how titles and property are handed down through British aristocracy, or inheritance tax. 

I'm not sure who exactly this book is aimed at, cosy crime suggests middle age to me (because I'm middle aged and I don't like violent psychological crime thrillers, but plenty of my contemporaries do so that's worth very little), but the cover maybe suggests a younger more design-conscious, bookstagram, reader. They may not be particularly well-versed in the inequities of primo geniture either for all I know, but I grew up on Jane Austen before moving on to Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. 

I suppose there might be a world where a small English Village had two ambulances stationed in it, but not one where paramedics commonly worked alone - who hasn't seen enough Casulty to understand that? And the 60s might have been swinging in London and the bigger cities, but attitudes towards sex outside of marriage for middle-class girls in the counties took a long time to catch up, and so did the availability of condoms. There's a very sketchy understanding of the current art market too. 

The premise of How To Solve Your Own Murder is that in 1965 three teenage girls have their fortune read at the village fair, one is told her future contains dry bones and she will be murdered. She takes it to heart, and after another one of the three goes missing she dedicates her life to solving that mystery and evading her own fate. Eventually, more than half a century later she is murdered just as her great-niece has been sent for as a new potential heiress - she might be the right daughter mentioned in the fortune who will bring justice. 

Annie is an unemployed would be crime novelist living in a Chelsea mansion with her artist mother on the charity of Great Aunt Frances. She seems a bit flakey, the terms of the will say if she solves her great aunt's murder within a week and before the police or the other potential heir - I don't think this is a will that would stand up in court. Much of the detection work revolves around reading Frances' diaries that Annie has discovered from the summer of 1965, and these flashbacks are probably the best bit of the book, the characters come alive, and the plot holes are less glaring. 

This is the first in a planned series, it will probably do well, and there are worse things out there, but it fell flat for me. The resolution to the 1960s murder is flimsy, and half an hour's research would have cleared up some silly errors - that nobody thought it worth checking any of these details made me, as a reader, feel taken for granted. 

Martini - Alice Lascelles

If 20 years in the wine trade gave me a really strong set of prejudices about anything it centres around making cocktails at home. When it comes to most things wine, beers, or spirit related there isn't a right or wrong - if that odd food match works for you go for it. Buy the wine you enjoy, drink whatever neon-hued liqueur takes your fancy (there may be mild prejudice there), and if a mass produced lager appeals more than an artisanal brew - well, you get the idea. 

With cocktails and most things pertaining to them I strongly believe there's a right and a wrong way to go about things, partly born out of bitter and expensive experience in the early days of learning about them using crappy 80s guides and not great ingredients. 

the first rule to observe is that unless you're prepared to invest serious time, money, and effort, leave the really fancy stuff for going out to a really fancy bar. The second is to start with a good book. Alice Lascelles writes very good books full of really practical advice and her deep dive into the Martini is a joy.

If ever there was a drink designed to tweak into your own signature serve it's a Martini. It's veered from super dry to sweet and fruity over its long life - where hits the spot for you is a matter of personal judgement, there's a good bit of fun to be had in working that out. 

So going back to rule 2, and what makes this such a good book is the way it breaks everything down and covers all the practicalities. For a drink that can be neat gin or vodka the details matter - starting with ice, working through glassware, and finishing up with ingredients. For most of us, all of these things need to be sensibly priced - and that's exactly what Lascelles recommends. Glasses that aren't too large - you don't want your Martini to have time to warm up (and I don't want it in knock-out quantities either) mid-priced, and easily available, ice trays that work well, and make decent sized cubes - the details matter.

The choice of ingredients is smart here too, easily available, premium but not super premium spirits, and discussion around the differences different vermouths make to a drink. There's also a useful guide to the properties of vermouth and that it doesn't keep well - so one bottle at a time and take the time to consider which flavour profile works for you. 

From there the recipes come with tips for garnishes and how to prepare them, and an entertaining little potted bio of each iteration. I love this book, I've loved reading it, am looking forward to drinking from it, and am planning on giving it widely this Christmas to stylish friends who imbibe. It ticks all the boxes. 

A New Jumper

I've knitted a few jumpers now and got past the early failures of too big, too long, and generally unwearable to a reasonable sense of what works for me, so this time I decided to try without an actual pattern to follow, although I did look at Donna Smith's Peerie Leaves for a general size guide. Very general because the Jamieson and Smith 5 ply doesn't equate to the DK that pattern uses so there was added guesswork for the number of stitches to cast on. I used 4mm needles too, which I like for this because I prefer a lighter fabric that I can layer. I'm sorely tempted to order a couple more cones straight away to start a second jumper on smaller needles for when I want something slightly more windproof though. 

Basically I'm happy with the result except for the neck. Long story short I should have added at least another 18 stitches to it, I went down a needle size first time thinking the tighter knit would help with structure. It was too tight so I had to rip it back, and definitely dropped some stitches in the process. I did not manage to effectively pick them all back up so after I'd knitted the neck for a second time and finally clicked on where I'd gone wrong (it should have had another pattern repeat/18 stitches) I didn't want to risk ripping back again. 

More than anything though I've fallen in love with the yarn. It's lovely to knit with, the colors are fabulous, and it feels great. It's not as grippy as the shetland yarns I'm used to - hence the slipped stitches on the neck but I cannot wait to wear this or to knit more with the 5 ply. It's probably for the best that I can't call in to the shop right now, there's zero chance I'd exercise even a minimum of self restraint. If I order online I do at least have to meet the postman's eye and all the judgement I imagine I'm seeing there. This is the work postman, a genuinely nice man who yet manages to make the most ordinary conversation sound threatening.

Anyway, I strongly recommend trying the 5 ply. It comes in 50g balls and 250g cones. For a jumper to fit a UK size 20 with negative ease I used just over 1.5 cones of the main colour, maybe 20 -25g each of the other colours. Unless you're seriously skinny and like a fairly cropped jumper you would definitely want 2 cones for any larger project. 

Long Live Evil - Sarah Rees Brennan

I have a weakness for a cosy sort of fantasy that doesn't take itself or the genre too seriously but does treat it with affection and respect. It started with Terry Pratchett at a formative age and has been reignited by the current vogue for this particular subgenre. Some books have been better than others, Long Live Evil, which I listened to while knitting surprised me with how much I liked it. It doesn't do anything particularly new, but it does it much better than a few other examples I can think of. 

Rae is a 20 year old woman dying of cancer with pretty much only her younger sister by her side. Het father abandoned the family when the going got to tough, and her mother is too busy working to try and pay medical bills (it is an American book). Her friends have moved on and it's all fairly bleak, when one day a mysterious woman tells her she can have a second chance in her favourite book series - if she retrieves a mystical flower in the book she'll be cured in her own world. 

It sounds like nonsense, but what do you do but humour a mysterious stranger, even on your deathbed. So nobody is more surprised than Rae when she wakes up in Time of Iron, as a villainess. Unfortunately, she never really read the first book in the series properly, it was her sister's favourite first, becoming something they shared. She's listened to her sister read it to her, but not very closely so there's a lot of very hazy detail. 

Even more unfortunately she does remember that the character she's currently inhabiting is due to be executed the next day, but Rae isn't going to give up on her second chance so easily no matter what it does to the plot - which spins further and further away from her. 

Chaos ensues. Sarah Rees Brennan is transitioning from YA to adult here, and does it well. She interrogates fandom and it's obsessive nature, but with enough good humour to see the good as well as the bad in it. She has fun with her characters and discusses some reasonably dark themes, but avoids smut - this wouldn't be inappropriate for her younger audience to read. I found this one fun and look forward to book two and seeing where she takes her story next. 

Seven Lively Suspects - Katy Watson

It's been an up and down kind of week - I've been having problems with my foot that I'd been assured by consultant were arthritis and would be helped by a steroid injection. After a very long wait, I finally had an appointment for that injection on Monday. Just before needles were brandished it turned out that over almost 2 years of consultations and scans (4 appointments in that time) they had the wrong foot. No injection, the arthritis in my left foot isn't bad enough to warrant it and it wouldn't have done anything for the actual problem in my right foot. So back to the beginning but with much less mobility and much more pain than I had 2 years ago. I'm both angry and upset which is a poor combination online. 

I'm making good progress on a jumper though and been listening to a couple of audio books whilst I do it. I've been sent a review copy of A Very Lively Midwinter Murder which made me realise I hadn't read this one yet. It's still in hardback and I didn't like book 2 in the series enough to want to buy it until the paperback release. 

I enjoyed Seven Lively Suspects far more than A Very Lively Murder - which was okay (thoughts here) which I felt lacked character development and had too high a body count. Seven Lively Suspects reins back considerably on the murder and does much better by its 3 main characters who are really starting to come to life. With book 5 due out in the spring this series clearly has no shortage of ideas to play with.

The charm of book one was in the 3 strong female leads - all actresses who have played or are playing the same fictional detective (Dahlia Lively) along with the references to various golden age crime writers - Agatha Christie in an obvious candidate but in book one there were references to Dorothy L. Sayers, and in this book I thought I saw parallels to Josephine Tey. If there were similar references in book 2 I missed them. 

Here our actress detectives are asked to join a true crime podcast set to re-examine a cold case, Caro the middle Dahlia has a connection to the case in that she testified against the presumed culprit and helped send him to prison. The mix of guilt and fear she feels is persuasive, and so is the friendship between the three Dahlias.

 The mystery hangs together nicely, I guessed the wrong murderer, and Caro's, now a true crime writer herself, appropriation of Katy Watson's books is another amusing touch as is the literary festival setting. Cosy crime isn't normally my thing but I like this series for its homage to the golden age and the fun it has with what it's doing. I didn't like the narration of the audio book - I found the tone mildly annoying, the accents felt off, and the humour over stressed. It wasn't enough to stop me from listening, but enough to think I'm much better off reading the physical book. 

Shetland with Laurie Goodlad and Otter Spotting

Shetland Your Essential Travel Guide by Laure Goodlad is the latest book from Misa Hay's 60 North Publishing project. If you're planning a trip to Shetland it's definitely worth giving Laurie a follow on Instagram, and ordering her book either direct from 60 North or through the Shetland Times bookshop. I bought it as soon as I got up there with the definite intention of doing something I'd never done before. After consulting the book and my general level of fitness (arthritis is playing hell with my right foot, and I can't currently walk as far as I'd like and really not very far off road - I'm scheduled for an injection to help with the pain a week today) I thought a sea bird tour around Noss would be perfect.

Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas, it was sunny for most of our time in Shetland, but also windy enough on the free days I had not to be ideal for a boat trip. Next time. Meanwhile the book is full of excellent walks, info for shopping for wool and knitwear, things to see, photography tips, heritage attractions and more. The size is sensible, the weather advice is another excellent feature, and altogether it's a thoroughly useful and engaging guide book.

An actual highlight of the holiday was spending the best part of an hour on a sunny afternoon Otter watching though and there are tips for that in Lauries book too. 

She lists some great possible spots in Lerwick, the best times of day to see them, and gives a bit of solid advice - if you really want to be sure of seeing an Otter book a nature guide. I learned this when I went to Mull and didn't see a Sea Eagle - it feels like everyone else I know just saw them hanging out, so I thought I might get lucky too. Sadly not and if I ever go to Mull again I'm doing a nature tour because I really don't know enough about Sea Eagle habits to have a clue about where to start.

I do know a bit about Otters though, and I'm pretty good at spotting them. Shetland is a great place to do it, it has the highest concentration of otters in Europe and a lot of water close at hand - which otters like. Watching the sea is a good strategy for Shetland anyway - there are seals, an excellent chance of whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and a whole raft of birds to spot quite apart from an otter. 

Spending a bit of time observing seals is worthwhile - once you know what they look like in the water you'll know that's not what you're seeing when you spot an otter. My next tip is to go for a good walk along the coast - look for lots of crab shells, sea urchin shells, and possible otter spraint - otters are messy eaters when it comes to leftovers. From there the best time to see them is either side of low tide - look for good rocks with plenty of kelp around them and then sit downwind from the sea.

Otters don't see very well so if your spot is a good one you might end up getting quite a close encounter. If you see one in the water you can move closer to the shoreline whilst they're diving, but be respectful of their space - it's their home, not ours. 

New Scottish Baking - Sue Lawrence

I didn't think to take a photograph of it, the tent was busy and sometimes you just want to enjoy the moment, but a hotly contested category in the Shetland agricultural shows is best Sultana cake baked by a Gentleman. We hit it lucky and managed to shows in the time we were up north - Cunningsburgh and my local show - Walls (Waas). Dad entered his sultana cake, delicious but unplaced along with a couple of other friends one of whom swiped first prize. I'm not saying dad is bitter about this, but I'm not saying he's not either. 

Doug is now determined to get in an entry next year and so I bought Sue Lawrence's 'New Scottish Baking, because if anyone was going to have a really classic, hopefully show winning as well as stopping, sultana cake it's surelySue Lawrence. Her recipe is based on her mother's and she also mentions similarly simple cakes from the 18th century. It's a simple recipe with no fancy tricks, so will rely very much on the baker making a good job of the business. I'm very much looking forward to the results.

It would have been an expensive book for a single recipe for a fairly standard cake so it's lucky there's a whole lot of good interesting sounding things in here, though at times I'm not sure what makes something Scottish. I'm looking at you artichoke heart and thyme bread, and you Pain aux Raisen, and Pecan Pie is getting some side eye too. I made a Pecan Pie with my sister last week so I should probably let it pass and save my questions for the two separate brownie recipes (it feels like one too many to me). It's not that any of these things sounds less than delicious so much as that I do  not associate pain aux raisins with Scottish home or cafe cooking. 

On the other hand who am I to argue with Sue who knows far more about her subject than I do. I'm on safer ground with Aberdeen butteries (a salty fatty thing that my husband loves and I don't) an excellent range of shortbreads, a particularly intriguing bannock that comes out on the shortbread end of the scale, a lot of scones, oatcakes, and roasted rhubarb, orange and ginger blondies. The concept of the blondie doesn't often appeal, but a rhubarb and ginger version does. It fits the tray bake tradition and the ability of rhubarb to thrive in the highlands and islands. The gentleman who won first prize for his rhubarb at the show told me his patch was well over a hundred years old.

There's a tomato and black pudding (Stornoway of course) tart that's also caught my attention, so altogether I'm delighted with this book and looking forward to making good use of it. I might even see if this pecan pie is a better version than the one  I've been using for the last 20 years. 

The Formidable Miss Cassidy - Meihan Boey

I'm back from Shetland and feeling low about it. We had a fabulous couple of very busy weeks and really weren't ready to come back to work yet. So far the adjustment has been hard even with the extra time on the ferry and then stopping in the borders on the way back. Maybe not helped by the borders being another beloved area which deserved more time. Work today was overwhelming, not because of the work itself but more the sheer number of people. That I'm listening to football chants carried to me on the wind and not the actual wind, birds, or sheep is another disconnect that I can't quite reconcile yet. 

The formidable Miss Cassidy wouldn't give into this sort of melancholy, she'd shake herself down and sort something out and as that's hardly the worst example to follow she's where I'll start. I really liked this book which i read a good few weeks ago as a proof. It's out in hardback now and if any of you are in the mood for a reasonably cosy fantasy with a bit of an edge I highly recommend it. The blurb on my copy likens the heroine to part Mary Poppins and part Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Miss Cassidy is like neither of these characters, and yet it's not the worst description. It does at least capture something of the vibe of the book. 

Miss Cassidy arrives in Singapore in 1890 to be a governess for the listless child of a merchant who has lost the rest of his family to tropical disease. She soon realises that there is something supernatural haunting the remaining family and takes steps to deal with it. The first problem solved she moves on to another family and a more worrying creature, and in the process, the reader finds out more about Miss Cassidy who is as enigmatic as she is formidable.  

The blurb also promises Magic, Romance and Mystery. Do not be taken in by the promise of romance. There's an intriguing relationship that promises to develop further in subsequent books but here it's a deep friendship and not more. the romance is along the Travis Baldree lines of Bookshops and Bonedust or Legends and Latte's - and all the better for it. 

What really makes this book special though is the way that Meihan Boey has taken her Singaporean/ southeast asian folklore and mixed it up with the myths and legends of her Scottish husband. If I have this right the novel was originally published in English, and it's Pushkin who have the UK rights. Hopefully this will  be successful enough that we get the next two books here. The mixing of traditions is both unexpected and entirely successful. Meihan brings her melting pot Singapore to glorious life evoking flavour and smell along with an oppressive heat and all shot through with an affection for home that is entirely beguiling.

Miss Cassidy is a curious visitor eager to learn about her new home and in that spirit makes friends wherever she goes. It's a charming book with enough of an edge to avoid complacency in the reader - maybe more Buffy than Mary Poppins in that respect, though it's kinder to its monsters with a  hint of sympathy for the way they come into being that begs the question of who or what is monstrous first. 

The Witching Tide - Margaret Meyer

In some sort of personal record I seem to have finished two books whilst on holiday and only bought one. I bought The Witching Tide because it was described ad Margaret Atwood meets somebody (maybe Angela Carter?) that sounded particularly compelling along with all the other plaudits it was recieving.

Now that I've read it I'm not really sure what to say about it. the Margaret Atwood comparison is fair, Margaret Meyer is a fine writer who approaches her subject with compassion, sensitivity, and just the right amount of anger. She creates a convincing version of east Anglia during the civil war and witch hunts of the 17th century, the plot and pacing are both compelling, and yet there's a but.

There are a lot of novels, and almost as much non fiction examining the witch hunting craze of the 17th century, some will be better written than others - and here's the but - do we need as many of them as we have? How much outrage can an individual reader muster and how many times do I want to read about how bloody awful men can be to women? 

Not many times in my case, so whilst I appreciated this book and found it almost as absorbing as the cover quotes promised, I'm also left a little cold by it. Everyone suffers too much, and sometimes it's not entirely clear why. Having the main character as a mute midwife is effective - of course, she's going to get caught up in a witch hunt, and as it happens she does have things to feel guilty about. That Martha cannot speak adds to the sense of horror - she cannot speak up to defend her friends or herself, not that it would matter much if she did. 

There is a suggestion of actual witchcraft that also works well - mostly we see things from Martha's point of view and some of what she feels is suggestive of powers beyond strictly human - which also reflects the genuine belief in, and fear of, witchcraft that people felt. So overall there's much to like, and I did like it, but at the same time it's just not a book I feel passionate about, and will probably the novel on witch hunts I read for a very long time. 

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries - Heather Fawcett

This book was big for us early this year, I bought it when I was in the mood for something light and managed to ignore it ever since. It seemed like a good bit of holiday reading in that it probably wouldn't be a book I'd keep so I wouldn't have to carry it back with me once I'd read it. 

It has been a nice bit of light reading, and I will leave it with my sister to read. Before this sounds too dismissive I'm looking forward to reading the sequel when it comes out in paperback; it's a thoroughly enjoyable bit of fantasy with some decent jokes and a welcome relief from the romantic fantasy which is everywhere. 

Emily Wilde is a brilliant academic in the field of Dryadology engaged in a winters worth of fieldwork in a remote Scandinavian community. She's soon joined by her college, Wendell Bambleby who might be rather more than he seems, and her dog Shadow, who is definitely more than an ordinary dog. Emily and Wendell find a mildly cursed village where Emily, despite her lack of social skills starts to put things right with the reluctant aid of Wendell. Unfortunately, academic curiosity leads her to make a very silly decision.

In some ways very little happens, but it doesn't happen enjoyably. The footnotes are amusing and Heather Fawcett both understands and has fun with all the folk and fairy tale conventions. Emily is a spikey kind of character with just enough chaotic energy to balance her competence and make her decently 3 dimensional. Wendell becomes slowly less human but in an equally relatable way.

There isn't really much else to say about this one - if you like a bit of light fantasy I'd recommend it, if it sounds utterly unappealing it won't be for you. As a fan of Holly Black, Sylvia Townsend Warner's fairy tales, and Susan Stokes-Chapman darkly gothic novels I found enough to enjoy here, though Heather Fawcett is definitely more at the whimsical comedy end - with just a hint of a love interest. I'm not sure she's as good as Travis Baldree in the feel good stakes - but it's in that league. 

A Lerwick Yarn Shopping Expedition.

I'm currently in Shetland enjoying a mix of weather from idyllically sunny to driving rain - often in the same hour. I love it in both moods and all the stages in between. It's no hardship that a wilder kind of day is a good excuse to go to Lerwick to enjoy both the museums and the wool shops. It's a heady mix of inspiration for a knitter. 

Working on the principle that someone out there might find this useful this is my idea of a good time - you could start at either end!

Shetland Textile Museum. If this is open it's more than worth the £3 entry fee. Exhibitions change each year and sometimes within the season. This year one of the rooms is devoted to the late Zena Thomson, she taught me to knit at primary school, she was a brilliant teacher and a formidable knitting talent, it's been a real treat to see so much of her work together. The textile museum shop is also brilliant and you don't have to pay just to go in that bit (do pay!). 

There can't be many gift shops where the things for sale can match the quality of some of the exhibits - there's a nice selection of yarn from some of the smaller organic producers, these are at the more expensive end so it's great to be able to see them before committing. The knitwear is always inspiring, and there's generally people demonstrating upstairs who will teach a little and give useful advice. 

From the Textile museum it's a short hop to the The Woolbrokers (Jamieson and Smith) on the North Road. It's the bigger of the two dedicated yarn shops and they've been really good at introducing new ranges/weights of yarn over the last few years. The heritage ranges, and the 1 ply cobweb lace yarn are interesting, and so is the latest 5 ply sports weight they do. There's an excellent choice of colors in jumper weight too, but the biggest draw from my point of view is the extensive range of yarn they have on cones - 250g for the new 5ply, 500g for everything else and a few 1kg cones in stock at the moment. 

Cones are the cheapest way to buy and the savings can be significant, they're perfect for larger projects - jumpers and shawls, as there are no ends to tie in either. they're oiled for machine use so you need to be thorough when washing and dressing your finished piece, and you'll get grubby hands knitting, but when you find a colour you love they're an excellent investment. 

Next stop would be the Shetland Museum at Hay's Dock. They also have a decent collection of historic knitwear (as well as a cafe and toilets). From a knitwear point of view, their displays don't change as much as the Textile museums do, there are some star pieces there that are well worth repeat visits. 

From the museum, it's a pleasant walk into the centre of the old town (10 minutes at most) on a dry day. The Peerie Shop, Loose Ends, Ninian, R.A.M, Anderson & Co, all have a good range of knitwear to have a look at. Loose Ends sells Uradale Yarn and a couple of other smaller local producers. Ninian and the Peerie Shop are great for Shetland themed gifts of all sorts. 

As you go along Commercial Street there's probably my favourite shop, fabulous windows, Jamiesons's of Shetland I love the heathered colours they produce and their famous wall of wool. They produce their yarn in a wool mill at Sandness so everything happens in Shetland, and there's also a decent range of machine-knitted jumpers, slip overs, cardigans, and hoodies as well as a few tweed items for sale alongside other gift type things. Both Jamieson's and the Woolbrokers do a good range of pattern books (the Woolbrokers possibly have the slightly better collection of these). The staff in both shops are also great with advice for every knitters level and can help with everything from required yardage, through colour matching, to shipping if you want to buy a lot. 

Jamiesons have the best range of Double Knitting weight and if you want coloured lace weight this is probably the best place to look. Spindrift and jumper weight are interchangeable between here and the woolbrokers - there does seem to be an amount of personal preference between more experienced knitters but I don't have one. If the bands are gone I can tell the difference based on colour with reasonable success, but not on texture or quality. You can get everything here from a really fine lace weight through to a super chunky Arran weight. 

The Shetland Times bookshop is definitely worth a visit too - there's a good range of knitting books, both Shetland specific and beyond, an excellent selection of more general Shetland books, and plenty more besides.