FROM VERONA TO MANTUA (LETTERS TO JULIET)

Book by Charles Dickens, glassframes by Prada: a killer combination, and only in The Lipstick Papers!!!! (Should I also mention a favorite sweater from Stradivarius?) 😀 In the travelogue Pictures from Italy, Dickens was amazed by Verona, identified with Romeo and, on his way to Mantua, thought about how it must have all looked exactly the same as back then. Did Romeo look in this direction? Dickens wondered. Did he see this or that piece of scenery?

He also thought that it is almost a sacrilege to disturb Juliet so much (apparently visitors to her grave were as numerous in the Victorian era as today). "I am sure that wherever she is now, she is peaceful", Dickens thought.

Pictures from Italy is a strange, if not bizarre, book. Dickens saw Italy as this amazingly beautiful but alien place, and he manages to convey that feeling in his writing.

I haven't finished the book yet, and I wonder what other surprises and bits of information about Dickens's life it has for me. The author spent a whole year traveling between France and Italy and the book is about that trip. Right now, he's going to Milan. Let's see if he will have anything to say about fashion!

I will keep you posted 💋💋💋💄💄💄💝🌹👠
#charlesdickens #prada #bookblogger #Italy #Mediterranean #reading#Verona #RomeoandJuliet #Stradivarius #fashion #Milan #beauty#TheLipstickPapers #Prada #eyewear

SIMPLY FABULOUS

Another of my famous Brigittes! Original art by myself. This would make a fabulous cover for my novel Mermaid Mirror ;-)

HUNTER'S MOON: SOMETHING BORROWED

Overcoming writer's block by a return to longhand (handwritten) text! I am officially out of the writer's block, because last night I managed to finish my novel Hunter's Moon! Here I am writing and posing with a number of prized possessions: a most amazing Stradivarius sweater, a favorite Moleskine notebook, and a Bic anniversary silver biro pen! All these together are not worth 50 € but, as Karl Lagerfeld says, style has nothing to do with money. For me, nothing beats the pen and paper for writing. Writing directly on screen nearly ruined me as an author.

However, we learn from our mistakes. I am never leaving pen and paper again.

The novel is a fantasy adventure, meant to be completed in two volumes. The first was called Hunter's Moon: Something Borrowed. The second will be Hunter's Moon: Point Taken. Maybe it will turn out to be a trilogy, but I am not sure yet. Also, I am not embarking on the second volume directly. It's better to miss your characters, as well as work out the plot in the subconscious. I am now writing my Mermaid Mirror novel in a parallel universe. I have called this new novel Mermaid Mirror: Through the Looking Glass.

You can see that Hunter's Moon begins with a stanza from the amazingly haunting poem Maud. If you love dark, vampirism poetry, don't miss Maud. The Victorians were great with the passionate vampire inspired novel, and in fact actually invented it.

Have a good night, and take a good book always with you! 💝💝💝💋💋💋💄❤👠🌹
#writing #books #novels #pen #Moleskin #Victorians #fantasy#vampires #Maud #Tennyson #poetry

EXIT NIGHT, ENTER LIGHT

Channel your inner Jane Eyre today, or your inner Heathcliff, if you are a boy, and read something Victorian, go for a nature walk in the bad weather, or simply slouch at the hearth! "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day", Jane says in the memorable opening to Jane Eyre. The rain is so penetrating that Jane and her annoying cousins have to stay inside. Today started off nicely, but it was windswept by the seafront. However, there was no rain and the temperature was good.

And I'm so glad the days are getting longer! This is a most amazing time of the year, despite the ongoing cold. Darkness has lost the game!

The hearth is at the house of a friend. For the Victorians, the hearth was at the heart of a home, and signified all that was good about family life. Of course, not everything was idyllic. Despite the cultural obsession with the family, domestic violence was at its peak, many marriages were miserable and there was a great deal of oppression and cruelty behind closed doors. Appearances can be deceptive, as Jane Eyre will testify.

Personally, I had a lovely afternoon, and I will wish the same for you. Have a nice evening, always with beauty and a book! 💝
P.S. I hope Metallica will forgive my reversal of Sandman for the title 🤓
#JaneEyre #CharlotteBronte #Victorians #sea #seafront #beauty#Cyprus #books #reading #hearth #TheLipstickPapers

GUESS WHO

Guess who found the lucky token in this year's vasilopita! Yep, that was me. You can see my piece in the pic! 😀It means I will have luck all year.

Here I am on New Year's Eve at my aunt's home in Pafos. Apart from the vasilopita we had other traditional dishes as well: cream pasta baked in the oven and bread! The bread was simply fantastic: made with sourdough yeast and baked in a wood fired oven.

I told you in an earlier post how the Ancient Greek geographer Strabo had praised bread from Pafos as the best in the world. I think so too, and a taste of this bread will convince anyone. I think we should get in touch with current bread specialist Samuel Fromartz!

In cultural theory, bread and baking is part of life's rituals, and a site for meaning making and identity formation. Cultural theorists are, of course, right. I am currently reading a Phd thesis on traditional food in the Cyclades; it is where I found the Naxos custom from the previous post. It's a thesis full of interesting information!

Have a good start to the New Year, with beauty always with you! Xxx 💝💝💝💄💄💄💋💋💋
#HappyNewYear #baking #cakes #vasilopita #Cyprus #Greece#traditional #culturaltheory #Strabo #bread #SamuelFromartz#TheLipstickPapers #food #beauty

HOUSE OF CARDS (THE NAXOS PROTOCOL)

The vasilopittes (βασιλόπιτες) are ready at the bakeries, so the New Year is near! Vasilopita is the traditional Greek cake to be eaten on New Year's Eve. It is made like a butter and egg cake, with orange peel too, and contains a small coin, or token. The person who finds the token has luck all year. The vasilopita is decorated with the new year numerals, which are made with sugar icing or almonds. Yum!

In the Greek island of Naxos, the traditional vasilopita had the shape of a cross (indeed sometimes you can make a cross design on top, even if the shape is round). In Naxos, the person who won at cards on New Year's Eve was considered to have luck all year. He or she was given a whole bread to take at home. Once at home, he/ she had to stay awake all night. Then, in the morning, he/she had to take the bread and step in and out of the house saying, "in with the good, out with the evil". Maybe it was better not to win at cards!

When I lived in a England, one of the things I missed from Cyprus were the bakeries. I think the bakeries here have an almost epic dimension. The amount and variety of food they produce is simply mind blowing!

If you will play cards on New Year's Eve, don't forget the Naxos protocol! Keep vigil all night and then perform the in and out ritual! Xxx

#NewYear #NewYearsEve #Greece #Cyprus #bakeries #Cyclades#Naxos #Greekislands