Cover of The Kensington Way

The Kensington Way by Stephen Twigg, a holistic health practitioner who counts the late Princess Diana among his clients, is a weight-loss program that relies on combining specific foods, rotating food choices, and using mind-body techniques – such as affirmations – to transform you from fat to fit.

The right food combinations—fish or poultry with vegetables, for instance – take off pounds, Twigg contends.  Conversely, the wrong ones – like proteins coupled with starchy carbohydrates—keep them on.  Likewise, he says, all the foods you eat should be on a five-day rotation, except for fruits, vegetables, and yogurt, to eliminate the toxins in the body.

Is this brilliant science – or sheer nonsense?  “Whenever you put limits on what you eat, it leads to weight loss because you eat fewer calories,” Cheryl Rock, PhD, RD,

 Family and Preventive Medicine professor says.  “But this plan isn’t healthy because you’re likely to miss lots of nutrients.  There’s little guidance on portion control – and no scientific evidence that food combining works.  The food-rotation concept is another trick to make you not eat stuff you’d normally eat.  The whole thing is amazingly unscientific.”

In his book The Secret History Of Georgian London which was published by Random House, Dan Cruickshank explores the depth of depravity that was Georgian London. His estimate that about every fifth woman was a sex worker might hit near the mark with all the evidence he’s putting forth. Stripping away the romanticist embellishments added by the Victorians, he gets into cases to prove his points.

The female sex workers upheld a strict caste system, I suppose everybody needs somebody to look down upon, starting in the gutter with the streetwalkers, next came harlots who worked from brothels, then prostitutes who formed part of a ‘nunnery’, and at the top the courtesans as kept mistresses of the rich and the powerful. Some few even managed to marry into a peerage, like the Gunning sisters.

Courtesans were celebrities in their own right and would be received in most except the most high ton establishments such as Almack’s. One well known celebrity was Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Lord Nelson. But the star of them was probably Sally Salisbury who is believed to have written her own autobiography. Amongst her clients and protectors she could name Lord Bolingbroke, the Duke of Richmond and George II. But like so many, she succumbed to alcohol and ended her life in goal.

Brothels were run by brawds, harlots having become too old for the trade. They collected the day’s arrivals from the country directly from the coaches coming into London to take them to their homes. Offering friendship they then pressurized their pickings by presenting them with fake bills and debts they would have to work off.

Charlotte Hayes was a famous keeper of a nunnery. One of her protégées was Emily Warren who was to become Sir Joshua Reynolds muse. William Hickey, the Georgian memoirist, wrote about her:  ‘I however, that night, experienced the truth – that she was cold as ice, seemingly totally devoid of feeling. I rose convinced that she had no passion for the male sex.’

In her will, Hayes left the staggering sum of 20,000 pounds (well over a million pounds in today’s money) she had amassed through her dealings. Inspired by James Cook’s accounts of Tahitian erotic rituals, she organised a tableau in which ‘12 beautiful nymphs, unsullied and untainted’ were to be deflowered by 12 young men. The high paying audience to this life event were later asked to join in the frolic.

Cruickshank covers the range well, adding to the picture the child abuse quite common at the time, as it was believed that the intercourse with a child would relieve sufferers of venereal diseases they had picked up leading their debauched lives. The asking price for a virgin was around 150 pounds in these dealings and could mean children as young as eight. On the other hand, Cruickshank completely ignores the male sex workers which obviously, considering Hayes little tableau, existed at that time just as today.

The streetwalkers were forbidden their trade by law in 1820, and with the start of the Victorian age and its double standards of morale, the sex trade was driven underground to produce even more exotic flowers than in the Georgian era.

For those who have read books by Georgette Heyer, the book is an eye-opener as to the good old days portrayed by her. And those who haven’t read her books, reading some after this book might give you a better feel for the period’s upper and lower classes, as she is a masterly writer on period detail.

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A series of reincarnations leads to higher consciousness.

Have you ever had one of those moments of feeling that you have been here before?  Reincarnation is a possible answer.  Many believe that we are all souls passing through a new and different life. 

Edgar Caycee, a man who got through the entire Bible every year, found no conflict between his Biblical beliefs, and knowledge of reincarnation.

The knowledge of our past lives gets buried in the subconscious.  Yet there are ways to get some of the memories to surface.  Another belief is that knowing who you were in past lives will help get through some issues in the current life.

At certain times memories of past life may come to haunt the subconscious mind in strange ways.  An irrational fear of fire, or drowning comes to fore.  Is it possible that a former life ended in a disaster involving either of these fears?

You instantly hit it off with someone you meet.  Was this a sister or a mother in a different lifetime?  Someone who was your enemy in one lifetime is reincarnated, but the friction of the animosity may flare up in a new acquaintance.  A past life connection may not be recognizable right away.

The author, John Van Auken, reveals mysteries of the other lives.  He outlines reasons for evolving in and out of various lifetimes, how the current life is affected, and more.  Van Auken is a devout believer, and maintains that God is the source of all life.  He states that all of the religions are actually worshipping one God.

A number of chapters are dedicated to one woman’s passage through several lifetimes beginning before Christ.  She was in the group that first realized that Christ had arisen after the crucifixion.  She and Christ evolved in and out of many reincarnations together as different people with different roles.  The last known reincarnation was her association with Edgar Caycee. 

In depth explanation of the why and wherefore behind the intertwining lives is easy to understand.  The focus points to the soul as the heart of reincarnation.

How did they do it? A different theory with a lot of research behind it shows up in this book. Simply titled The Pyramids, many enlightening facts surface about the ancient peoples of that early civilization epoch.

An interesting note is that one gets the feeling that science very much plays the devil’s advocate role with Pyramid studies. “It is unsubstantial bias to suppose that modern technology is all-encompassing and always superior.” states the author early on in the book.

Actually written by two prominent writers, Joseph Davidovits and Margie Morris, the read is loaded with factual studies about the development of tomb building. Graphs that show geological readings, and drawings of the varied stone material used in making the ancient building components are abundant.

Arriving at a conclusion early on, the term geopolymer enters the picture. Could it be that the ancient Egyptians knew a technology that modern times has yet to discover?

Since the Egyptians were such good record keepers, their history is revealed through receipts and recorded transactions of business dealings. Davidovits and Morris traced records showing Egypt’s trade dealings with Lebanon.

Lebanon was home to pine trees that, of course, would never be found in the dry, desert conditions of Egypt. This supports the hypothesis that the stones used in the pyramids were made of aggregated materials.

How? The perfect growing conditions in Lebanon yielded huge pine trees with trunks that were several feet wide – perfect for making molds.

The science that made the creation of incredible materials that survived the ages was a kind of alchemy. Discoveries of bodies that were never embalmed remained in such perfect condition that the skin was still supple.

Imagine the reactions that the archeologists found when the bodies had been preserved to a state of something that we may see at a funeral in today’s advanced world. Perfectly preserved food maintained life to be discovered by researchers.

Again, how did they do it? One belief is that the pyramid shape itself was part of the magic.

Whatever alchemy occurred in the aggregation of the huge stones, the magic material kept moisture in the tombs in the middle of the dessert. This ancient culture even had the technology of desalinating seawater. Of all the technology used in building the pyramids, astronomy also played a part in the planning.

Through language exchanges recorded between the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians the names of our current planetary system are established and revered from the inception. Their God was the Sun who gave them the perfect temperatures for curing the alchemical creation of the pyramid’s stone blocks.

A blend of interesting cultural studies coupled with the science of alchemy or chemistry make this book a good read. The reader can approach from simply learning a few facts to learning the more technical side of the enigma that the pyramids truly are.

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There are many books written about writing skills, but these are some I actually own and can confirm are very useful:

Improve your Written English – By Marion Field

The author is a GCSE examiner and was formerly the Head of English at a UK comprehensive. The book covers everything from grammar and sentence construction, to spelling and completing written tasks such as formal letters, job applications, etc.

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My Grammar and I (or should that be me?) – By Caroline Taggart & J.A.Wines

This book covers grammar and punctuation, in depth, as well as common spelling errors, and is written in a refreshingly humorous way. Highly recommended.

What If? – By Anne Bernays & Pamela Painter

This book contains eighty-three separate exercises for fiction writers, which aid authors in starting and ending stories; engaging in dialogue; transforming fact into fiction; and finding appropriate language. The authors have over twenty-five years writing experience between them and teach at Havard Extension school.

Line by Line: how to edit your own writing – By Calire Kehrwald Cook

This book identifies and helps you solve five problems: loose baggy sentences; faulty connections; ill-matched partners; managing numbers and references; and problems with punctuation. It’s an expensive book at it’s usual price of £49.99 but happily, it is currently on offer at £11.50 (at amazon.co.uk) – and well worth that price.

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And finally, since it’s been recommended by so many of those who’ve taken the time to comment on this article:

Elements of Style – By William Strunk, which you can read online here.

You can find all these book on amazon.co.uk, along with many others you might find helpful. Happy reading!

If you liked this article you may be interested in the the following:

How to Choose Winning Titles for Your Triond Articles

Professional Editing Tool: A Godsend for Amateur Writers

Me, Myself, and I – Do We Really Need Grammar?

Their search led them to Japan, to an old lady who was the sister of a WWII hero, and to a veterans’ reunion of the Natoma, a WWII aircraft carrier, while collecting the evidence for a case of reincarnation.

If the idea seems so preposterous to you as to be unbelievable, you are probably right. The initial plot is done quite well and in the confines of believable possibilities, it’s piling up the evidence that undoes the plot. Most revealingly, the most American of reactions is completely missing in the book: Calling in the shrink.

One of the proofs included a book about Iwo Jima that Bruce presented to his father. It is quite clear at that point that the interest in WWII ran in the family, and I for one don’t know the stories the grand-father might have told his grand-son. But it makes you suspicious about the premises of the quest in the first place.

There are other inconsistencies: For instance, I doubt my son aged two would have been articulate enough to correct me from seeing a bomb underneath a fighter plane to tell me that it was a drop tank. And setting up the parents Leininger in the bad cop good cop alignment where Bruce doesn’t believe in it and Andrea does, doesn’t make anything more believable. It rather made me wonder why Bruce was doing all the research in the case.

The proofs provided get more curious, like the sister who had felt a presence on the day of her brother’s death, but remembered it only later (oh what wondrous things are our memories!). Starting out from ‘nobody saw him go down’, Bruce goes to find no less than two witnesses of the fatal hit over Japanese waters. Curiously, both witnesses hadn’t reported their observations on debriefing. What a coincidence.

The book is published after the ‘witnesses’ are all safely dead. This brings me to the conclusion that we are dealing with one more American urban myth. That the writing style is rather like the howling of a cheaply made advert doesn’t help either. Emotions are piled on witnesses and family reminiscent of a cake gone black in the oven and covered with oozing globs of topping to hide the damage and the bad taste.

Low and behold, I flip through my new cookbook, take stock of what’s in the cupboards and end up making Barley and Apple Pilaf. I didn’t have barley as the recipe called for so I used brown rice instead and left out the celery for the same reason but using only rice, onions, chicken broth, raisins, apples, oregano and coriander (cilantro) I had a healthy and surprisingly delicious meal! The apples, being of the granny smith variety, weren’t overly sweet as I feared they would be in this concoction. And the mixture of oregano and coriander was something so simple and flavorful that I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of that combo sooner.

Just to insure this wasn’t a flop, soon after I followed his recipe for stuffed peppers. Surprisingly my food bill for that one meal was £4.39 (if you take away the toilet paper and aluminum foil I also purchased for other needs). Even in pounds that’s cheap! I then tried the enchilada recipe, cheap and delicious, as well. I knew I had come across something special.

I never heard of Charles Mattocks before (even though apparently he’s the nephew of Bob Marley) but after reading his cookbook, I know I have found a fellow food soulmate. Someone who cares about taste, health, and price but knows those elements don’t have to be limiting when placed together. His is a heartwarming story, wanting to learn to cook so his son didn’t suffer the unhealthy bachelor lifestyle he was living. This led to his interest in cooking which grew into talking with friends and getting their favorite recipes and pretty soon he was The Poor Chef on TV. The other thing that I really like is the diversity of these recipes, such a different and wonderful mix of origins that makes me miss the US very much in some ways.

In my current state of unemployment, post-student debt riddled life I know this will be one companion I can count on to uplift my spirits in a tasty and thrifty manner.

This first part is an overview of the mead making process. Its history and presumed discovery by our ancestors. Also located here is a description of the different names for mead. It is a short section but gives a good overview of mead in general.

Section 2: Process

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The second part of the book discusses the procedure for home brewing mead. A few starting recipes are presented as well as a review of the equipment that will be needed to make a first basic batch. Explanations in the usage of yeast follows with a list of yeast and their characteristics that they pass on to the mead that the make. Honey is missing several key minerals and nutrients needed for yeast to thrive in. Ken Schramm gives good amount of attention to the correct nutrients and their amounts. He also talks about each of the stages of growth that yeast will go through in the fermentation process. This section is pretty important for those who have had a batch of mead stuck during fermentation before it was finished. The chapter finishes with a discussion on oak and aging your mead to improve mouth feel and taste.

Section 3: Ingredients

This chapter of the Compleat Meadmaker begins with the most important of ingredients, honey. Ken covers multiple aspects of honey including it’s the amount of sweetness, and which minerals are missing from honey. Honey is notorious for giving yeast a hard time so special attention to nutrients in honey is a necessity. By knowing which type of honey is lacking what, the home brewer can help out the yeast and insure a strong and quick fermentation.

Most impressive is the over 3 dozen types of honey, measured across over a dozen types of aspects. This truly gives the home brewer to fine tune a batch of mead to any desired flavor trying to be reached. 

Next the author covers in great detail fruits to be added to meads to make a melomel. Pros and Cons are listed for various fruits and a very handy quick reference table is included to cover mild, medium, or strong fruit tones. This will save the hobbyist much time desiring to create new tastes. This part ends with a discussion of metheglins; mead with spices added.

Section 4: Recipes

The book ends with covering many recipes for various types of meads from dry, medium, and sweet flavors in melomels. I was pleased that an example of several different styles of mead was given. Too many mead resources only have sweet and not-so-sweet examples. The section and book ends with online honey ordering resources that will open up new possibilities.

Conclusion

Ken Schramm has covered every aspect in mead making and kept the home brewer in mind. It’s the perfect source of information for any wishing to test and experiment with mead or with home brewing in general.

Miles’ six hundred eighteen-page novel grasps the heart of the reader, walking her through life beyond the title of Queen Elizabeth Regina Gloriana I.  The reader better comprehends the reality of monarchy during the Renaissance and the struggle one woman faced to obtain love and respect from the citizens under her rule.  In this novel, on finds the tale of triumph, politics, potential scandals, tragedy, and unrequited love with which Elizabeth dealt.  Each chapter instills a new passion into hte reader’s soul; by the end of the novel, one feels as if she has personally known Queen Elizabeth.

Mile’s book unintentionally hints at several morals and discusses how Elizabeth may have encountered situations that that would have questioned her own standards.  She wrote about the life of the queen to give the reader a better understanding of Renaissance England’s monarchy, but the story brings in ethics just by revealing normal experiences on would have faced in that time period.  they were not plugged in to make the reader focus on moralilty, however, the way the story develops causes an awareness of the temptations of physical lust and how she dealt with traitors, acts of treason, and prisoners of war.  She faced temptation to have a lover more than once when she thought she was in love; she restrained herself from immoral actions.  She could have treated traitors viciously and cruelly, as did some of her family, but she was different.  Elizabeth was the queen that England had never had before, but so desperately needed, because of her strong ethical standards.

The overall theme envelopes all the subjects of morality and ethics the queen faced and ties them together to show that hard work, self-control, faith, and perseverance built the foundation of Elizabeth’s success.  As demonstrated in this novel, it was a combination of these elements that made Elizabeth I so loved, honored, and respected to this day.  These virtues are still cherished and readers can apply them to their own lives.  I, Elizabeth makes its readers wonder if they will be remembered with the same, or at least similar, qualities.

Queen Elizabeth I had choices to make about the examples she would set for her followers.  She had to base decisions on what was best for her country, as well as her reputation.  She had to keep in mind as queen that her people were cautious in trusting her because of her family history.  Her mother was thought to be a witch and a whore, her father couldn’t keep a wife, and her sister desired to execute every person who separated himself from the Catholic Church.  Elizabeth was different and, despite many struggles, she succeeded in gaining not only trust from her people, but love and respect as well.  Any person who is a leader or just wishes to be a good example will seek the virtues that Elizabeth managed to pursue after reading this novel.

Miles wrote I, Elizabeth extremely well and is to be praised for her work.  The one thing that could have given this book a supreme ending is a letter written to England’s citizens from Elizabeth near the time of her death, expressing the love she had for her country and her wishes for the lives of every man and woman in the nation.  It would have given the story closure and demonstrated Elizabeth’s chief joy in life: the passion she had for England and its people.

He manages to show up the sheer lunacy of religious people quite well when relating to the dying days of Cardinal Hume. Basil Hume when announcing his coming death due to terminal cancer received the answer: ‘Congratulations! That’s brilliant news. I wish I was coming with you.’ from the Abbot of Ampleforth. But as ecumenical advisor to the cardinals at Westminster, lunacy is the least of his problems. Eccentrics, hobgoblins, and sleazes abound in his tales.

There was one Ann Widdecombe who made a major publicity stunt out of her conversion to Catholicism by hiding paparazzi in the crypt. She topped that feat by organising an exorcism at the Home Office to rid the rooms of the evil aura of Michael Howard, who had ‘something of the night’ about him, after he left office.

Tony Blair was more circumspect with his sneaking conversion, demanding of Seed to enter through one of the ground floor windows at No 10 to read mass to the Blairs in corpore.  Alan Clark treated him as his personal priest, telling him that after having talked to God he now felt completely at ease; then showing him his collection of Nazi memorabilia.

Mother Theresa of Calcutta would descend upon London and demand a 30 room mansion for her down-and-outs; and would get it; as Hume said: ‘She always wants things and I always give them to her.’ Hume himself is described by him as childish, petulant and immature, throwing tantrums when missing a football match due to his duties. And driving past No 10 he would shout ‘Maggie out!’ But Hume was known to never give anybody any lifts: ‘My car is not a taxi.’ So, how does Seed know this?

There are numerous funny stories in between the plain names dropping, so the book is quite a good and amusing read. All of it obviously has to be taken with a pinch of salt, to put it mildly. Or as my grand-mother used to say: ‘Si non è vero, è ben trovato.’ (If it is not the truth, at least it’s well invented.)

More power broking:

Blair Affair Nightmare

Blair Affair, The Lies Continue