Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue with Recipe by Orla Drumgoole who is Irish Mammy Cooks
August, and it brings Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue and a recipe by Irish Mammy Cooks who is Orla Drumgoole.
Author
The youngest of eight children, Emma Donoghue attended a catholic convent school in her home city of Dublin.
Emma Donoghue
Born 1969, she worked hard and achieved an honours BA in English and French.
Going on to receive a PHD from Cambridge in 1997, Emma claims to have never had an ‘honest job’ after being sacked from a month working as a chamber made.
Since then, writing has been the thing which has paid her rent.
In 1998, Emma settled down in London Ontario with her partner and two children.
Somewhere I read that obsessed with Anne Listers first lover, who is Eliza Raine, since she adapted the Diaries of Anne Lister in 1990, it was only a matter of time before Emma wrote a book with her as the main character.
Learned by Heart is the fifteenth book by Emma Donoghue.
A bestseller in Canada, it was on the shortlist for the Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
Over her 30 year career, her books have covered diverse subjects such as an island in Haven, a maternity ward in The Pull of the Stars to an 11ft by 11ft space in her bestseller Room.
Book
Released in 2023, Learned by Heart is inspired by Anne Lister of the Gentleman Jack series.
The story of two women, very different from each other, meet while children at a school for young ladies.
They shake up each other’s lives.
Learned by Heart
British father and Indian mother, at 14, Eliza Raine is banished to England, spending the first part of her school days alone, trying to blend into the background.
One day, a vivacious, strange and brave Anne Lister arrives to share a room.
Over the course of time, whispering long into the night, they build a bond that sexually awakens them both, making them inseparable until Lister is whisked home after breaking her leg.
The book is recounted by Eliza, known to Lister as Raine, as she begins to find her true self, her first love and first heartbreak.
It follows letters she writes while in an insane asylum, but doesn’t send to Lister, where she begins to realise that Lister is no longer hers.
It’s rumoured that Eliza was the inspiration for the character Bertha in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
My Thoughts
I’m either getting really soft or the books that are being chosen for Foodie Book Club are getting better, because once again, I liked this book.
Another author I’ve not read before, and I’ll certainly be looking into more books to read.
I’m a big fan of the Diaries of Anne Lister, so coming across this book was a bit of a thrill.
It was nice to find out how Anne Lister began to be who she is and the influence she had on the world.
Seeing the world through Eliza Raines eyes adds a new and unique perspective I was pleased to see.
Written with a lot of empathy and insight about the era, I felt drawn to the book and wasn’t in any hurry to finish it.
I’d would definitely recommend it to others and give it a 4 ½ egg rating .
4 1/2 Egg rating from me.
Food
Orla Drumgoole
“A self-taught cook, wife and Mam to three gorgeous girls, I teach music and English in my day job.
I feel passionately that everyone should feel able to bake, so my page is full of easy recipes and tips to help you bake and cook for family and friends.
This is a simple small cake for your book club delight this month as you read Emma Donohue’s ‘Learned by Heart’. “
Orla Drumgoole who os Irish Mammy Cooks
Ingredients
120 g Butter - very soft
2 large eggs
140 g Self Raising Flour
100 g Icing sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
4 Apricots-Halved
50 g Lemon Curd
One slice or two?!
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan.
Add all but the apricots and lemon curd to a mixing bowl, and, using a spoon or egg whisk mix the batter well.
Pour into a 7x7 inch parchment lined sandwich tin.
Push the apricot halves gently into the batter and then top with the lemon curd, using a spoon to spread it around in a marbling fashion.
Cook for forty minutes. The top will still look a little gooey because of the curd.
Serve with a cup of tea and that wonderful book 😊
Enjoy
