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Inkluderar namnet: Jane Dorner

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Verk av Jane Dorner

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This self-published, gift-only, 288 x A4-page book splendidly integrates the autobiographically-recounted eponymous life with the reproduction of recipes that are particular favourites, tell a story or have sentimental value. “Cross-sectional musings about my life” run parallel to the course of a (very long!) day’s meals, each chapter of a recipe-type preceded by an autobiographical preface. Thus, the initial Menus “starts with the ‘menu’ that went into the planning of’ the author”: vivid portrayal of her fascinating German and East European forebears. Recounting her early years appropriately heralds Breakfast; the Soup section brings reflections on her Jewish heritage; for Couvert, description of family heirloom tableware precedes suggestions for starters; Breads and Pastry, “which is the staff of life ... The staff of life for me is friendship”, brings records of friendship; by the Fish course Jane has entered her publishing years, as reader, researcher and copy-editor; the Meat course – “the meat of life – well, it’s love and marriage, surely”; Fusion, mostly vegetarian, deals with the birth and growth (to become gourmet cooks themselves) of Jane’s three children; Leftovers marches with accounts of clearing the houses of deceased parents; “Picnics” with stories of the family out of doors; Salads – of course – “My salad days”, the middle years. Tea leads to “Making things”, the truly extraordinary number of various art and craft courses Jane has attended (“Not to mention self-taught ethusiasms ...”), the variety illustrating “the pull of words and craft”; Desserts to freelance work, as writer (Jane has written 20 authored and co-authored books), editor and publisher both in arts and IT); Parties to socialising, and accounts of wonderfully themed parties – Wittenstein’s Poker Parties featuring ambiguity, Mozart’s Death Day, palindromic menus, colour – “eatsthetics”; Pick your own to “The technology years”, when the author, having taken her first degree in English and Philosophy, then a Diploma in Art History, became “a bit of a techie”, inventing the tablet computer in the mid-80s, ahead of its time, reviewing computer music programs, writing articles on word-processing. Preserves – as she writes, “Preservation leads me to my copyright years”, when she became involved in the preservation of authors’ rights, rising to the Chairmanship of the Copyright Licensing Agency and membership of the Institute of Directors. Drinks leads to her latest enthusiasm and accomplishment – glassware. “I completely changed my life”, she writes, moving alone to the West Midlands to learn glassmaking, later producing glass works of all types, including publicly displayed installations. There is Playful food – the preface mentions “certain themes [that should] appear among the recipes”, such as opera, violin-playing, architecture, holidays, games, collections, and observes, “What is this book, if not a collection? It collects my recipes and my memories and people I am fond of.” Finally, Cooking for one. This chapter was rewritten four times – the last time following Stephen’s death, when Jane became a widow, and the preface becomes a meditation upon solitude.
So much artistic proficiency is found in these autobiographical prefaces to the recipes, in so many different fields. Sometimes different talents are combined for production, as when Jane “got married ... wearing a white mini dress that I made myself as well as making both our wedding rings, and cooking the wedding breakfast”; at parties for which she provided dishes that fitted the theme (a lute-shaped pie, a golden-section tempettio de formaggio, a tall croquembouche) and were listed on witty, artistically drawn menus; marmalade poured into her own blown glass jars.
The layout of the book itself demonstrates artistic accomplishment, a triumph of design, with beautiful, witty, intricate little watercolours dispersed throughout; and even mathematical accomplishment too, as the whole design of the book, published to celebrate Jane’s 70th year, is a numerical game – “The total number of illustrations is divisible by seven and by the years of our marriage and matches the pagination in a mathematically pleasing way ... The distribution of competitors plays a similar numerical game.” And the writing of the book, of course, is brilliant, witty, perceptive, and at times deeply emotional.
As it is presented chiefly as a cookery book, the index is deliberately restricted to recipe ingredients. But oh, one might so well wish to find again references to aesthetics, architecture, Art School, Art Workers Guild, babies, Bristol University, camping, cancer, car engine cooking (yes! for hot food for picnics!), cat, children, chinaware, collections, computers, dishwasher / salmon in, feminism, freelancing, grammar checker, house clearing, Jews, opera, publishers, Rye, sports, violin playing, wine glasses!
Note, this rapturous review makes no mention of the recipes themselves. All this is simply supplementary, a wonderful side dish to a master chef’s masterpiece.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
KayCliff | Mar 28, 2015 |
Photos and drawings of many fashions from the 1920's and 30's. Includes wedding gowns, sportswear, shoes, makeup and undergarments.
 
Flaggad
UniversalCostumeDept | Aug 14, 2013 |
Covers how to write effective copy for personal and corporate websites. Looks at how to prepare, structure and style web copy, evaluate what makes an effective website ad how to keep readers interested and engaged.
 
Flaggad
ruric | Dec 30, 2012 |
Jane Dorner’s previous book, Writing on Disk, offered guidance on the use of electronic methods in writing for authors and publishers. Now she provides sound and detailed advice on internet uses, advantages, and resources for writers, covering email and its extended uses, the worldwide web, virtual communities, electronic imprints, new writing opportunities and forms, and publishing practicalities, and addressing the issues of copyright, censorship and health hazards. There is a 35-page classified list of 800 websites for writers (also available online – the password is given in the book).
While the viewpoint throughout is that of the writer (‘a concept that needs reexamination, because words are no longer the only “units” with which a modern author can work’; Dorner ‘use[ s] the word “author” to describe those who write for book and journal publishing and “writer” for screen, TV and broadcasting’), there is much here too of interest to publishers. For example, consideration of whether what has been put up on the web has been ‘published’: ‘If the book is published on the web, can you then offer it as unpublished work to a traditional print publisher?’ There is caution against full electronic submission of work to publishers, with paper-reading compared to screenreading.
There are sections on multimedia, the design of websites, hyperlinks, search engines. The index has entries for e-books, e-cine, e-commerce, e-ink, e-journals, enewspapers, e-paper, e-readers, and e-zines.
Dorner suggests a new term, ‘©yberRight’. ‘As copyright gives to authors the exclusive right to print, publish and sell their material, so ©yberRight would give the exclusive right to control electronic distribution. We could have a symbol for it – a “c” within curly brackets, { c} , because computers are currently locked into ASCII as the lingua franca and can’t cope with circles. Besides, the curls of the brackets hint at the transitory nature of the medium itself, the lack of fixity in those “lines of light”.’ The copyright section also considers plagiarism and manipulation, and points out that earlier copying out of others’ works by hand or typewriter ‘suggests a consciousness of copying which is no longer applicable as electronic copy–paste seeps its way across literature’.

Valuable, up-to-date guidance from one who has been closely involved with the techniques and problems of electronic publishing as author, editor, reviewer, and member of Licensing committees.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
KayCliff | Aug 1, 2008 |

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John Seely Series Editor

Statistik

Verk
17
Medlemmar
136
Popularitet
#149,926
Betyg
3.8
Recensioner
4
ISBN
22
Språk
1
Favoritmärkt
1

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