Now She is Witch by Kirsty Logan with Recipe by James Sharp
About the Author
Taken from website. Find it here!
Kirsty Logan writes: “I’m a fiction writer, book reviewer, freelance editor and writing mentor. Basically, my life is all books, all the time.
My writing has been optioned for TV, adapted for stage, translated into Chinese, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, recorded for radio and podcasts, exhibited in galleries, and distributed from a vintage Wurlitzer cigarette machine. I regularly perform at events and festivals throughout the UK and Europe, and I teach online workshops about writing.
I live in Glasgow with my wife Annie, our 2-year-old child, and our rescue dog. I like books, coffee and swimming
I am currently collaborating on several projects: a TV show for NBC directed by Amy Neil, a horror film, an illustrated chapbook, a horror musical and an epistolary story.”
Book
A book about loss, desire, sexuality and revenge.
Kirsty Logan describes her book ‘Now She Is Witch’ as “a medieval witch revenge quest and a witch story unlike any other” where the two main characters ..”Lux and Else join forces to take their revenge on a powerful man.”
Else finds Lux alone in the woods, with nothing and no one to her name.
Moving through a dangerous world for women like them, ‘neither mother nor maiden’ the two go on a journey where they are drawn into a dark tale involving poisons and witchcraft.
With travels through snowy woods and bright sunlight the world Lux and Else are in is violent and beautiful and they manoeuvre their way through it.
My Thoughts
In general, I liked the book, but what I didn’t enjoy was the over descriptiveness of the authors writing style.
After reading a few other reviews of the book, it seems that I’m the only one who feels this way, - 5* reviews from everyone except me!
So much detail in the book, at times for me, way too much.
I was so distracted by the details that were being read out to me, in places, I wanted desperately for the story to move on and I feel that the story, pace of the book and characters were sacrificed for the sake of the author wanting to show off her descriptive qualities.
After a time, I just got bored by all of the imageries, much preferring my own imagination to add my interpretations to the story, and maybe that would have happened if I’d read the book myself.
I listened to this book, and it was read by the author.
When an author reads their own work, I always assume that they’ll know how it ‘should’ be read, I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if someone else had read the words and put a different slant on it, but i think i would have just given up and skipped to the end!
I’m giving the book a 3 egg rating!
I give it a 3 egg rating
Food
About Chef James Sharp
Twenty-nine-year-old Chef James Sharp loves street food!
He loves it so much he started a business with his girlfriend, making high end hash browns with all the high-end toppings imaginable.
And where did he get this idea?
While working in restaurants around the world, where after work, he would use what was left to make great food for his colleagues.
Growing up in London, James has worked all over the world in Michelin restaurants and as a private chef.
Now living in north London with his girlfriend, he was a mile away from working as a chef when at university, although cooking for his housemates was something he enjoyed.
Studying politics and sociology at Loughborough University, but after graduating he zoomed off to spend his winters being a chalet chef while when the weather wasn’t right for skiing, he made his way back to the UK to work for a catering company in London.
His thinking was, that if he knew how to cook, he could work anywhere in the world, it wasn’t long before it became his passion and ambition to conquer the food world.
Meeting his girlfriend gave them both inspirations to open a pop-up art gallery and restaurant revolving around his amazing Hash Browns.
Why does James love cooking? It’s all down to his mother!
“My mum loved a party and food was always a huge part of this.” James tells interviewers
Drawn to the nose to tail style of cooking, with influences from the Highlands of Scotland, you could say that cooking was in his blood.
What of his style?
Because he did a lot of his training in a Michelin star restaurant, the classics are where he started, learning to refine dishes.
Wants people to feel joy when they eat his food and take an interest in what they’re eating.
“There is nothing worse than a forgettable meal.” Says James
All of his experience led him to giving MasterChef the Professionals a go.
James Says; “Since leaving the fine dining restaurant scene I’ve missed it. I crave that honest, and even harsh feedback. It makes you grow as a chef.
Entering MasterChef The Professionals gets me back into that world. Cooking has always appealed to me as a place where there is nowhere to hide, there are no excuses and no room for passing the blame. It’s raw and honest, and I really appreciate that.”
Find out more about James on Instagram here,
James Sharp
Recipe
Parker House Rolls Recipe by James Sharp
“Bread for me, if one of the most important parts of a meal. It really shows you where you’re about to go, what sort of culinary journey you are about to embark on. Something to nibble whilst sipping that first drink and flick the brain into indulge mode. These Little numbers are Such a treat to make, more of a treat to eat and the perfect start to any meal. I got this recipe a while ago when helping some friends out at an East London Restaurant and I have never looked back. I have tried many others, but none are yet to surpass the joy that these give me to serve.: James Sharp
Golden Parker House Rolls
You will need:
500g Bread Flour
100g Caster Sugar
10g Salt
100g Softened Butter
300g Water at 430c (warmish)
Half and Egg
7g Instant Yeast or 20g Fresh Yeast
150g More bread flour to be added at the end.
Method
Combine dry ingredients (apart from your 150g Flour), and mix.
Add water and egg and combine.
Slowly add your butter
Once this is a fully combined sticky dough, start adding your final Flour a spoon at a time.
Knead until fully combined and elastic dough has formed (around 15 mins by hand, 8 mins by mixer with dough hook).
Shape into a large ball and cover with a towel to rest for an hour.
When dough had doubled in size, knock it back and weigh out into 60g balls.
Place these along a deep baking tray with about a cm in between each ball.
Let these proof until doubled in size again (they will now be touching each other and starting to look the part)
Glaze with egg wash and a sprinkle of salt.
Bake at 190 for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 170 for 5 minutes.
Take out, let them cool and enjoy!
