Emile Zola

I have only read one of Zola's novels, Therese Raquin, which I really enjoyed even though it is a rather depressing story. The poverty and living conditions it describes in Paris are hard to believe but I'd put it in my list of favourite books.
 Zola was an interesting character, living through the second half of the 19th century, politically active, and a major player in the exoneration of the falsely convicted officer Alfred Dreyfuss. Growing up in Paris he was friends with Cezanne. He was fired from his job at the publishers Hachette after the publication of his autobiographical novel La Confession de Claude in 1865 which had attracted police notice due to its sordid nature, but Therese Raquin, his first major novel followed shortly after.
Paul Cezanne- Paul Alexis reading to Emile Zola, 1869-1870
Although writing continually and building the series of 20 books called Les Rougon Macquart, his success came in 1877 with the publication of l'Assommoir (the 7th book in the series) which made him wealthy, to be followed by the success of  Germinal , the 13th  novel, in 1885, which is often considered to be his masterpiece.
Tragically, he died of monoxide poisoning in 1902 aged 62 due to a blocked chimney and foul play was suspected by many due to his political involvement.

Bibliography:

• Contes à Ninon, (1864)
• La Confession de Claude (1865)
• Les Mystères de Marseille (1867)
• Thérèse Raquin (1867)
• Madeleine Férat (1868)
• Nouveaux Contes à Ninon (1874)
• Le Roman Experimental (1880)
• Les Rougon-Macquart
  • La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
  • La Curée (1871–72)
  • Le Ventre de Paris (1873)
  • La Conquête de Plassans (1874)
  • La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret (1875)
  • Son Excellence Eugène Rougon (1876)
  • L'Assommoir (1877)
  • L'Attaque du moulin (1877), short story included in Les Soirées de Médan
  • Une Page d'amour (1878)
  • L'Inondation (The Flood) novella (1880)
  • Nana (1880)
  • Pot-Bouille (1882)
  • Au Bonheur des Dames (1883)
  • La Joie de vivre (1884)
  • Germinal (1885)
  • L'Œuvre (1886)
  • La Terre (1887)
  • Le Rêve (1888)
  • La Bête humaine (1890)
  • L'Argent (1891)
  • La Débâcle (1892)
  • Le Docteur Pascal (1893)
• Les Trois Villes
  • Lourdes (1894)
  • Rome (1896)
  • Paris (1898)
• Les Quatre Evangiles
  • Fécondité (1899)
  • Travail (1901)
  • Vérité (1903, published posthumously)
  • Justice (unfinished)

(Just thought I'd add a link to this excellent site about Zola http://www.well.com/~jax/literature/Rougon-Macquart.html )

Paris-Shakespeare and co.

I've never made it to Shakespeare and Co, that famous bookshop in Paris, but I saw this photo today and have resolved that on my next trip it must be top of  my list.

Dublin to host pre-Olympics meeting next month

This caught my eye this morning. Don't know if you just turn up on the day but a reallt great way to see olympic contenders right here on our doorstep.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/
Morton Stadium in Santry, Co. Dublin, will host a pre-Olympic Games International track and Field Meet on Wednesday 25 July. It follows the recent news that Athletics Ireland’s bid to host the European Team Track and Field Championship in 2013 has been successful.

Minister for Sport, Michael Ring said: "The event will be the premier track and field meet in Dublin this year and will provide a great opportunity for the Irish public to see some of our Olympians and Paralympians in action. It’s also an excellent send-off for everyone competing at the London Games. "

The Morton Pre-Games is expected to attract upwards of 150 athletes for a full programme of track and field. In addition to the Morton Mile, events include men and women’s 100m, men’s 400m hurdles, top class 800m races for men and women, the Albie Thomas 3,000m, pole vault, long jump and more.

The event organisers have already received expressions of interest to take part from athletes from countries including the US, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Latvia, Jamaica, the UK as well as Ireland. Last year’s feature Morton Mile resulted in seven athletes running the mile under the four minute barrier, led by US athlete Jordan McNamara and including Cork’s Ciaran O’Lionaird who went sub-four for the first time.

Ciaran O’Lionaird will compete for Ireland in this year’s London Olympics in the 1500m.

Apple dappy (!)

Made these last night. Another great recipe from that really cool kid's cooking programme 'I Can Cook'. 5-10 mins to knock together, makes 6, double recipe to make a batch of 12.http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/i-can-cook

• 100g self raising flour
• 30g butter
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 4 tbsp (60ml) single cream
• 1 dessert apple peeled and cored (get an adult to help you)
• Pinch ground cinnamon
• 2 heaped tsp demerara sugar

Oven 200/gas 7
Rub flour and butter together, stir in caster sugar.Add some of the cream and mix until you get a soft dough. (You may not need all the cream).

Grate the apple and stir in a pinch of cinnamon and a heaped teaspoon of demerara sugar.
Roll dough out on floured surface to about ½ cm thick rectangle. 

Spread the apple mix on top then roll up along the long side. Cut into 6 thick rings. Place one in the centre of the baking paper and the remaining five around the outside almost touching each other.

Sprinkle the top with the rest of the demerara sugar.
Bake 20-25 mins.

 

Nigella (lemon) limeade

I made this last night and it could not be easier!Nigella's recipe called for lemons and sparkling water- I had limes and soda water.

2 limes + 4 tablespoons sugar
750ml-1 litre soda/sparkling water

Cut each lime into eight pieces. In two batches blend 1 of the limes(8pieces) + 2 tblsp sugar + half the water. Sieve into a jug to filter out peel & pith. pour and serve with ice.

It's so quick and easy and can be adapted to cocktali recipes with a a splash of rum + mint, or gin.

Dublin and Other Portraits

I love photographt and the Gallery of Photography in temple Bar has some great little exhibitions which change regularly which is just what you wnat if you are in town a lot.
The current exhibition Dublin and Other Portraits is on until the end of August, which is great if you have holidays planned and won't be in the city at weekends as often as normal.

The exhibition isn't up on their website yet http://www.galleryofphotography.ie/ but The Irish Times had a goodarticle at the weekend 

ALANNA GALLAGHER

"In 1966, ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ photographer EVELYN HOFER captured scenes of everyday life in Dublin – an upcoming exhibition offers a chance to recognise friends and family in pictures of a bygone Ireland
IRISH LIFE HAS changed irrevocably in 45 years, as you can see in the work of German-American portrait photographer Evelyn Hofer. The snapper worked as a fashion photographer for Harper’s Bazaar magazine in New York and in 1966 visited Dublin to capture scenes of everyday life. These pictures became a book that was part of a series of literary portraits of cities by Hofer, who collaborated with the author VS Pritchett, master of the short story and also an evocative travel writer.
Dublin: A Portrait, published in 1967, looks at Dublin’s past, its politics and people, its grand mansions and curious corners. These photographs form part of the exhibition of 40 shots, which opens in the Gallery of Photography on Meeting House Square in Dublin 2 on July 6th.
The carefully composed pictures are in black and white and colour. “The colour photographs are particularly beautiful,” says Tanya Kiang, director of the Gallery of Photography.
Kiang wants to find out who the Irish people in these pictures are. One photograph depicts a football team playing in the Phoenix Park, each member bedecked in a mauve hand-knit jersey, visibly frayed at the cuffs and with crests – presumably sewed lovingly by faithful Irish mammies. Another captures a small girl in the Coombe, astride a high nellie bicycle.
If you can identify anyone in the pictures tel: 01-671 4654 or see galleryofphotography.ie. The works are for sale, with prices starting at €3,500. Dublin and Other Portraits runs until August 31st and will be launched by Susanne Breidenbach, director of German Galerie M Bochum, who is credited with rediscovering Hofer and edited a monograph of the artist’s work with art publisher Steidl"

Bewley's cafe Theatre 'The candidate'

I'm a great fan of Bewley's cafe theatre- how can you go wrong for €12 and only €8 on a Monday (if you have the day off!). July's play is 'The Candidate' by Gina Moxley. The blurb on the website tells us;
"THE CANDIDATE
A New Play by Gina Moxley
Starring Frances Healy
The Candidate is a lively, light and satirical take on the holiday romance:

Myra, a thirty-something Irish woman, in search of love, mistakenly books herself into a honeymoon resort and finds herself surrounded by couples.
Disaster.
Her luck changes when... in he walks, with a livid sunburnt vee on his chest, as good as sticking a harp on his forehead. He's Irish and he’s single! Their attraction is immediate and primal. Myra feels hot in places she'd forgotten about.
It’s all love (and gymnastics) under the mosquito nets, until he casually reveals he's a backbencher - a T.D. on a junket.
Is Myra destined for the Dáil? Well, would you trust an Irish politician?

The Candidate is a tropical cocktail of sex, sun and politics and the perfect antidote to the Irish summer.
July 02 - 21, 2012
Time: 1pm (doors open 12.50) http://www.bewleyscafetheatre.com/