Great Britain

Handmade

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Handmade: A Scientist’s Search for Meaning through Making by Anna Ploszajski

British materials scientist Anna Ploszajski shares her explorations of making and using 10 different common materials, visiting experts around Great Britain and trying her hand at making ceramic mugs, a fireplace poker, and much more. Part exploration, part history, part science, and part memoir, sharing her own and her family’s stories, with humor and candor.

The materials covered are glass, plastic, steel, brass, clay, sugar, wool, wood, paper, and stone. Her Polish grandfather fled troubles as a toddler in Siberia and World War II in Europe, eventually opening a plastics business in England. In working with brass, Anna shares her decades long love with playing the trumpet. She has many sugary snacks and drinks during an attempt to swim the English Channel. Wooden spoons are carved, stone is worked, glass is blown, and a blanket is knitted during her travels. Tough times in grad school were eased by inexpertly throwing clay on a wheel with a fellow classmate, and now she learns to make two glazed ceramic mugs. A fireplace poker is made and later gifted. The chapter on stone reveals that she has had a fear of heights since childhood, and much of Great Britain is explored during her travels by bike, train, and a camper van named Allen.

Anna is also a stand-up comedian, talking about science, and an entertaining lecturer about various topics in science, including glassblowing. As Anna is an excellent storyteller, she really kept my interest in learning about all the different materials, and about her life as a scientist and now, maker.  

Mrs. Porter Calling

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Mrs. Porter Calling: The Emmy Lake Chronicles, Book Three by AJ Pearce

In London in 1943, Bunty and her friend Emmy are living in a large house belonging to Bunty’s grandmother. Soon they invite Thelma, who works the switchboard with Emmy at the Fire Service, to move in, along with her three lively children, George, Margaret, and Stanley. Thelma’s husband is oversea with the British Navy, while Emmy’s new husband Charles is with the Army in North Africa.

The house has a large yard with a rundown shed where the kids hope to keep a guinea pig, and possibly chickens. Harold, a family friend, helps fix up the shed. Thelma and Emmy hope that Harold and Bunty will become more than friends.

This all sounds like a very cheerful and charming World War II home front novel, and it is, in parts. However, Emmy’s day job, as an advice columnist for Woman’s Friend magazine, where her kind brother-in-law Guy, is the editor, is increasingly stressful. The magazine has a glamorous new owner, the Honourable Cressida Porter, who sweeps into the magazine office with her tiny dog, planning to modernize the magazine and the office to be more fashionable and upbeat. The staff, with one exception, are horrified and try to keep the practical content and advice their faithful readers love.

Then the war again leaves its mark, with a sudden death. A wonderful group of friends and family take care of each other in the aftermath while the magazine staff make a stand. Heartwarming and compelling reading, but sadder than Yours Cheerfully (Book 2), though not as tense as Dear Mrs. Bird (Book 1).

Our Wild Farming Life

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Our Wild Farming Life: Adventures on a Scottish Highland Croft by Lynn Cassells and Sandra Baer

Two women with no farming experience, one from Northern Ireland and one of Swiss and Scottish heritage, apprentice as Rangers for the National Trust. As a couple, they buy Lynbreck Croft in the Scottish Highlands, with gorgeous, hilly views. At first, they live on the croft and commute to work, but really want to live and work on their 150 acres of land. They plant many, many trees, and acquire some native breeds of chickens, pigs, cattle, bees, and briefly, sheep. Sandra and Lynn plant a large kitchen garden, and apply for grants and loans. It sounds like extremely hard work in a very scenic setting. Selling farm produce shares and later offering farm tours and classes and appearing on the 3rd season of BBC2’s This Farming Life, along with sales of this book, help make their vision a reality. It’s still just the pair of them, continuing the hard work of living close to their land. Inspiring, this was a quick, memorable read