Writing at the Kitchen Table by Artemis Cooper

Author:Artemis Cooper [Artemis Cooper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571279777
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2011-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

The delivery of a typescript that represents two or three years of work is always a shaky moment for an author, and to have it received in such a churlishly unsympathetic manner was a shock. ‘The surrender into hostile hands of the book with which I had lived for two years and which had caused me much anguish but which I felt did all the same represent some advance over my previous work was traumatic.’21 Yet that was only the beginning. ‘Had I known what I was presently to discover about Macdonald I would certainly have preferred to abandon two years’ hard work, return the hundred pounds which was all I had received of that famous advance, and cancel the contract.’22

*

Instead, she began writing pieces for the Daily Express, pieces largely written with an eye to value. They had titles like ‘Some Leading Questions to Put to Your Butcher This Morning’, and ‘A Good Dinner Need not be Expensive’. Elizabeth had never had much money, so her concerns in these fields were the same as the editor’s and her readership. But Elizabeth could also be rather dogmatic, and the Daily Express’s food editor sometimes felt the need to keep her in her place.

In a collective article called ‘Is Butter Better?’ Elizabeth wrote out why she gave butter an unequivocal ‘yes’. However, the cookery editor felt that margarine did have its place for use in cakes, white sauces and strong fish like kippers and bloaters, and ended with ‘Perhaps the last word on the question is that the better cook you are the more margarine you can use.’23

At the same time, Elizabeth began work on one of her most light-hearted books, Summer Cooking. It was a far less demanding project than her previous one, included all the kinds of food that she herself most liked to eat, and she wrote it just as those foods came into season.

*

By March or April 1954, with the publication of Italian Food scheduled for November, Elizabeth had received nothing from Guttuso. He would not answer her letters, while Macdonald were getting restive: time was pressing. Elizabeth turned for help to her friend Derek Hill, who knew Guttuso well. Hill managed to persuade him that Elizabeth needed the illustrations urgently and, in ones and twos, they began to arrive: seven pen and ink drawings, and one magnificent watercolour of artichokes, a bundle of chard and a straw-covered flask. Elizabeth was completely delighted. These intense and vibrant images did not merely illustrate her book: they confirmed everything that she thought and felt about Italy, and that she had tried to convey in Italian Food. ‘Long before the pictures were out of my hands and delivered into those of the publishers, they had become for me an integral part of my book. Once again, the whole idea made sense.’24

Italian Food came out in November 1954, dedicated to Arthur and Viola Johnson, in appreciation for all the help and hospitality they had given her in Italy, and for Viola’s work in checking and correcting all the Italian words and phrases.

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