Codes and Quilts at Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park and the UK Quilters Guild are presenting a special exhibition of 100 new pieces created specially for Bletchley. Some were made by people with links to the park (a grandparent might have worked there) or by people inspired by the institution. There is also a "Secret Messages" category, where the quilts contain code.

It looks absolutely FANTASTIC, especially those quilts with code. More information from Bletchley here.

Aaand... another author in the family

Yes, it's "All About Chess" by Mattie (aka Matthew) MacNeal.

Another Mr. Churchill's Secretary Review—and a Thought

Unbelievable—a starred review ("Debut of the Month," no less!) of Mr. Churchill's Secretary from Library Journal!


LET’S TOAST the new authors making their debuts in 2012! The variety of venues and characters ensure dynamic new mystery reads. A shout-out to Susan Elia MacNeal’s intrepid female math wiz ( Mr. Churchill’s Secretary)...


The review may be read on Library Journal's site, here, but this is the best bit: 


VERDICT: Watch out for the smart girl who can crack codes with her slide rule. 


Let's hear it for the smart girls.

Mr. Churchill's e-ad

From Random House, the gorgeous new electronic ad for Mr. Churchill's Secretary....

Click the link and watch what happens!

Mr. Churchill's Cat

Winston Churchill's cat, Jock, now has a Facebook page! (There has been various Jocks, marmalade tabbies, at Churchill's home, Chartwell, since the 1940s.) Jock says, "I will do my best to give you a real insight into what really goes on at Chartwell!" https://www.facebook.com/chartwellnt


Winston Churchill named Jock after one of his favorite private secretaries, Jock (John) Colville. I used Jock Colville as the inspiration for my character, John Sterling. I was able to use his wonderful memoir: The Fringes of Power: The Incredible Inside Story of Winston Churchill during WWII for a behind-the-scenes look into what day-to-day life was like on Churchill's staff.

Mr. Churchill's Secretary's First Review!

From Kirkus Reviews, a lovely nod! 


It will go live on the Kirkus site on January 18th, 2012. The review will also be published in the February 1st print edition.

The best bit is this:

Brave, clever Maggie’s debut is an enjoyable mix of mystery, thriller and romance that captures the harrowing experiences of life in war-torn London.

Two More Maggie Hope Books

It's not just a book — it's a series! Huzzah!

Thanks to Kate Miciak and Victoria Skurnick, Maggie Hope will live on, and have even more adventures....

From Publisher's Marketplace:

Susan Elia MacNeal's HITLER'S NIGHTINGALE and untitled book four, the next two mysteries in the Maggie Hope series, to Kate Miciak at Bantam Dell, by Victoria Skurnick at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (World).

Mr. Churchill's Galleys

Yes, the galleys are being sent to reviewers from the Random House offices!

Drumroll, please... The cover!

Woman at War

The Atlantic has published some amazing images of women during World War II. Here's my favorite:

In the Garden of Beasts

Jana Riess is a scholar, editor, writer, and book critic.

She was also (full disclosure here), my sophomore-year roommate at Wellesley. And is still a good friend!

I recently read Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin for researching my third novel (yet untitled, but set in Berlin during 1941). Dodd's tome is a magnificent look at William Dodd, the U.S. Ambassador to Berlin, and his family, living in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich — a vivid, chilling, and gripping read.

Jana gives a wonderful review on her blog, which is also worth checking out.

Madonna and W.E.

W.E. is a new film about the Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII), who abdicated the British throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American divorcée. It's directed and co-written by Madonna.

Yes, Madonna.

It's scheduled to be released in Los Angeles on December 9, 2011.

The Duke and Mrs. Simpson make an pivotal appearance in Princess Elizabeth's Spy, so I've also done my research on W.E. (short for Wallis and Edward and how they privately referred to themselves as a couple). I'm fascinated to see how the film will turn out.

The August issue of  Vanity Fair features a sumptuous spread on the film, called, "Windsor Dressing." The costumes look gorgeous. Walis may have been a Nazi sympathizer, but she did have style. The photo above show James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
The costumes are by the Oscar-nominated Arianne Phillips, who worked with Cartier, Dior, and and Dunhill.


(Personally, I have Wallis in Schiaparelli.)

What President Obama Could Learn from Winston Churchill

What if President Obama took a page from Prime Minister Winston Churchill and appointment a coalition government? It might help. And could it possibly make anything worse?

Perhaps Obama should have kept the bust of Churchill in the Oval Office after all...

More Wonderful News about Bletchley Park!

The Queen to Visit Bletchley Park and Honor (or Honour) Codebreakers

Googling Bletchley Park

Great news from Google blog about the restoration of Bletchley Park!

Mr. Churchill's Cigar

Fire Sale!

According to the BBC, one of Winston Churchill's wartime cigars, half-smoked, was recently sold at an auction for 4,500 BPS.

Um, ok.

Mr. (and Mrs.) Churchill's Christmas Card

It's that most wonderful time of year again, but with everything going on, we probably won't get our cards out by Christmas — and so we're doing a New Year's "Happy 2010!" card.

However, I'm sure Mrs. Clementine Churchill was never late with her holiday cards. Above is one that Mr. and Mrs. Churchill sent, featuring one of Sir Winston's paintings.

It's now on exhibit at the Redbridge Museum, located in Ilford, just outside London. Their description reads as follows:

This Christmas card was donated to Redbridge Museum by Vera Wilson, who was for many years the Secretary of the Wanstead and Woodford Conservative Association. The card's cover is a reproduction of one Churchill's paintings. Churchill was an accomplished artist and took great pleasure in painting. It often helped to relieve the depression he suffered from, or as he termed it, the 'Black Dog'. He is best known for his impressionist scenes of landscape, many of which were painted on holiday in the South of France of Morocco. He continued throughout his life and there are around 500 paintings in existence, most of which belong to his family or at his home at Chartwell, Kent.

Production Date:

1945 - 1964

ID no:

REBMR_1997.1349 a-c

Object size:

W 12.5cms (a), L 17cms (a)

Maker:

Churchill, Winston (paintings)

Copyright:

Redbridge Museum

Mr. Churchill's 2010 Golden Globe Nominations!

Congratulations, HBO/BBC's Into the Storm !

Nominees for the 67th Golden Globe Awards include HBO's Into the Storm for Best Television Miniseries or movie, Brenden Gleeson (Winston Churchill) for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, and Janet McTeer (Clementine Churchill) for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or movie.

The movie takes look at not only Winston Churchill's leadership during World War II, but why, after leading his country to victory, he was voted out of office in 1945 (losing the position of Prime Minister to the Labour Party's Clement Attlee).

Read the Washington Post's review here.

Mr. Churchill's Brandy

Hello kittens! One of my birthday presents to myself this year was the gorgeous book, MixShakeStir: Recipes from Danny Meyer's Acclaimed New York City Restaurants. It's the gift that keeps on giving, believe me.

I was looking for a good brandy to use in their recipe for a classic Brandy Crusta, when I came across Astor Wines & Spirits's  Eniseli Georgian Brandy. Their copy says it was a favorite of Winston Churchill's.

Hmmm.

I was not convinced. First off, Churchill was a known Francophile — why would he favor a Russian brandy? And it's a clever marketing tactic, of course, linking a luxury good, such as a brandy, to Winston Churchill. But after a bit of research (all right, googling. But still....), it turns out to have a bit of evidence on its side. From Russian Cigar Clan Magazine:

IN THE STEPS OF CHURCHILL  The history has it that the first brandy distillery appeared in Armenia in 1887. Then first-guildmerchant Nerses Tairyan built on the territory of the ancient castle Sardar Khana a smalldistillery and equipped it with devices for creating brandy under classical French technology. However, the enterprise reached its hey-day in 1898, when it was acquired by Nikolay Shustov, well-known in Russia vodka and liqueur producer and seller. Soon “Shustov and Sons” partnership became appointed supplier of His Imperial Majesty’s court. Although, Shustov’s brandy was officially acknowledged not only in Russia, but in France, too, when at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1900 after a blind tasting it got the Grand-Prix and the legal tight to be called ‘cognac’, not ‘brandy’. The brandy glory did not diminish in the Soviet time. It was incredibly popular with statesmen. Winston Churchill was known to be a great admirer of the ‘Armenian cognac’, he first tasted the drink at the Yalta conference. The British Prime-Minister ordered up to 400 bottles of brandy per year, stubbornly calling it “Shustov’s”, which made Stalin hit the roof. Agatha Christie and Frank Sinatra loved this brandy, too.

Love the image of Churchill calling it "Shustov's" — just to tick off Stalin.

P.S. Here's the recipe for Brandy Crusta:

1.5 oz Brandy
0.25 oz Maraschino liqueur
0.5 oz Cointreau
0.25 oz lemon juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
Lemon peel spiral and sugared rim for garnish

Cut a lemon in half and moisten the rim of the glass with the lemon. Then heavily coat the rim with sugar. Completely peel one of the lemon halfs in a ½ inch wide piece of lemon peel. Fill glass with ice leaving enough room to place the peel in glass. Cut one of the lemon halfs in half again in order to get a quarter of the lemon. Juice the lemon quarter and add the juice to the brandy, maraschino, Cointreau, and bitters. Shake with ice for 10 seconds and then strain into prepared glass.

Creed's Windsor

Recently we chatted about Lord Randolph and Sir Winston's fragrance, Bleinheim Bouquet (1902). This year, the venerable 250-year-old French perfume house, Creed, has introduced a new fragrance, albeit inspired by Great Britain of the past, called Windsor.

According to Creed, the Windsor fragrance was:

... created in 1936 for King Edward VIII of England from ingredients grown in the British Empire. Edward was the first air pilot to be king, and Windsor is presented in a shatterproof 1.7 oz. leather wrapped bottle ideal for aircraft carry-on (or in an 8.4 oz. flacon numbered by laser and signed by sixth-generation master perfumer Olivier CREED).

Edward made headlines when he quit the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. He wore Windsor as king and later when he and his wife began a new life in Paris as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, superstars of international society.

Classification: Citrus / Green. Windsor is as subtle as the Duke of Windsor’s hand-tailored suits, shirts and ties, following his philosophy, "Royalty need not shout"

• Top Note: Windsor is a tour of the British Empire Edward once ruled. Its top note is British gin, Jamaican lime and a touch of Scottish highland pine.
• Middle Note: "Duke of Windsor" roses, those he preferred in his own garden, the Nuits de Young variety.
• Bottom Note: Bahamian orange, Canadian cedar and a dab of Australian eucalyptus.

So, now for my own snarky take.... First off, King Edward VIII, who was renamed the Duke of Windsor after he abdicated the throne (and his wife, Mrs. Simpson, for that matter), are on record as being admirers of Nazi Germany in the 1930s — note the lack of reference to that or any "German" fragrance notes. (Edelweiss? No, wait — that's Austrian.)

Second, Edward and Mrs. Simpson were ultimately banished to the Bahamas during World War II (the Duke of Windsor was the British Ambassador to the Bahamas), which makes the note of "Bahamian orange" all the more amusing. (The Bahamas post was considered to be a punishment for the couple's German involvement and a way to remove them from Europe.)

Third, "Royalty need not shout"? Oh, for pity's sake...

Still, I'd give it a sniff, maybe next time I'm at Aedes. The notes sound promising (gin, lime, pine and rose). However, at over $400 per bottle, it's a bit rich for my blood....

Personally, I like Demeter's Gin & Tonic — and for $20 per bottle, it's a steal.