Sponsor Michael Bell
Edgbaston Golf Club
Thursday 28th October 2021
Our sponsor for the evening was Michael Bell, Professor Emeritus in English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. Michael has a special interest in Lawrence and was well placed to sponsor a very special ‘live’ evening, albeit in our new post- Covid world.
Unlike some other authors, including famous contemporaries such James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, Lawrence does not have notable episodes of eating in his fiction. This is interesting in itself since he was so alive to what he called ‘the spirit of place’ which included local products and cuisine. Perhaps his working-class up-bringing left him resistant to being a ‘foodie’. Nevertheless, against the grain of contemporary working-class manhood, he was very domestic. As a boy he became an honorary extra brother in the nearby Chambers family on the Haggs Farm where he enjoyed spending time with Jessie and the womenfolk in the kitchen. Likewise, when he married Frieda Von Richthofen he did the chores throughout their nomadic life together. He found satisfaction in all these activities, even including washing dishes. The story of his life was unfolded expertly by Michael, as he revealed different sides to the infamous author’s life and times.
Members dined on various foodstuffs associated with his travels and writings from his pre-First World War winter with Frieda in Gargnano, by Lake Garda, to his extended sojourns during the nineteen- twenties in Mexico and the American Southwest. Brief taster readings were enjoyed throughout the evening to help whet the appetite.
APM
October 21
Dinner Minutes
D H Lawrence Dinner – 28th October 2021
Much as everyone loved the zoom cook ins and talks, it was a relief to be back at Edgbaston Golf Club In person for this D H Lawrence meal. Diligent as ever, Roger Hale had a carefully worked out Covid protocol – mask on entry to golf club and walk straight to table, as congregating at the bar was strictly forbidden. As I walked to my table, I saw several devil-may-care Buckland members, masks off, congregating at the bar. This group consisted of some of the younger members who, though still in their late 40s and 50s didn’t appear to have lost their live forever philosophy of their teenage years, the rest of the group seemed to consist of members that seemed surprised that they were still alive so had little to lose. Unsure about which of these groups I belonged to I threw away my mask and joined them. As I shook hands and hugged these human petri dishes, we were finally ushered to our seats… repeatedly, by Roger. I noticed the look of disappointment on his face so complied with his wish.
It was an achievement to fashion a dinner based on D H Lawrence as he isn’t renowned for culinary references in his work, in fact in the spirit of research I extensively googled ‘D H Lawrence and food’. One of the top results were Tripadvisor reviews for The White Peacock restaurant located 0 miles from D H Lawrence’s birthplace, not exactly helpful but I read all of the generally excellent or very good ratings, although one ex customer – Andrea J was especially disappointed by the size of one of her sausages, I feel that Lawrence may have had something to say about that.
This evenings dinner minutes will help explain the surprising connection between D H Lawrence, Snoopy and the Ford Escort RS Cosworth of 1992. How is it possible for one of the greatest authors of a generation to be linked to a cartoon dog and a rally-based road car introduced 61 years and 11 months after his death I hear you say, well, it’s all completely obvious and you’ll be kicking yourselves when I tell you, but more detail on these fascinating facts later.
Despite having read D H Lawrence for decades I knew little about his personal life, I used to regularly walk past the High School that he attended in Nottingham but that’s about it. Every time I walk or drive past it with my kids I say, ‘That’s where D H Lawrence went to school’, they have no idea who he is, I’m going to start saying ‘that’s where Puff Daddy and Dr Dre went to school’, although thinking about it, they have no idea who they are either.
Fortunately our sponsor for the evening was Michael Bell, Professor Emeritus in English and Comparative Literature at the University of Warwick. Luckily or unluckily our canapés arrived promptly, unluckily it was decided to start with the dinner speech followed by the first of Professor Bell’s talks at the same time. This perfectly divided the polite and the hungry as the discreet clanging of cutlery on plates could be heard as the tricky to eat canapés were devoured.
Perhaps the cruellest part of the night was when I pulled a bottle out of the wine cooler and it turned out to be San Pellegrino water. Although I consoled myself with Lawrence’s scientific attitude to water, to quote the great man:
‘Water is H2O; hydrogen two parts, oxygen one part, but there is also a third thing, and no one knows what it is.’
At the time of his death his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. One of his critics said his work was too sexual, too grossly physical, as if it were written with one hand in the slime. In order to defend his reputation, I spent a considerable amount of time on The Literary Hub web page sub section, titled ‘skip to the dirty bits’ an invaluable research for one handed scholars.
At the infamous Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial of 1960 where Penguin Books was prosecuted under the UK’s Obscene Publication Act, the prosecution’s Mervyn Griffith-Jones set this question ‘would you approve of your young sons or young daughters – because girls can read as well as boys – reading this book? Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or servants to read?’
Griffith-Jones had obviously researched well for the trial, complaining of the thirteen episodes of sexual intercourse, twelve of these described in the greatest detail ‘
He also counted:
30 – f*cks or f*cking
14 c**ts
13 b*lls
6 sh*ts
6 *rses
4 c*cks
33 p*sses
It would seem that Griffiths-Jones did himself no favours when insisting to read out all the beautifully written ‘obscene’ sections and Lady Chatterley was eventually acquitted.
We learned fascinating facts about Lawrence’s life and career. One of the many was that Lawrence’s wife Frieda Weekly, or Emma Maria Frieda Johanna Freiin von Richtofen to be exact, was that she was a distant relative of Manfred von Richtofen or The Red Baron, who was made famous in the 1966 novelty hit single ‘Snoopy vs The Red Baron’. This bizarre song tells in detail about the exploits of Baron von Richtofen and the 80 first world war pilots that he shot down and killed. This relentless killing spree was only apparently ended when Snoopy, a large headed cartoon dog for those of you that don’t know, shot The Red Baron down. The Red Baron was better known in Germany as The Red Fighter Pilot with typical German precision. Pretty obvious connection there between D H Lawrence and Snoopy I hear you say, but how on earth can there be a link between D H Lawrence and the Ford Escort RS Cosworth? Well, in the mid 1980s a young designer at Ford called Frank Stephenson came up with the idea of fitting the car with a large tri plane rear spoiler, the inspiration for this came from The Red Baron’s Fokker Triplane. However, the final production cars were fitted with two spoilers on cost grounds. Only one Escort RS Cosworth exists with a tri spoiler, this car was adapted by Ant Anstead on the TV programme Wheeler Dealers at a cost of £3,772.
After canapes, dinner minutes and the first of three fascinating talks about D H Lawrence by Professor Bell, our main course arrived. Thankfully the dish was plentiful, the pheasant a little on the tough side sadly, although there was plenty of it, which I was grateful for as Roger Hale’s dish was pheasant free so I’m not complaining. The polenta was billed as ‘soft’ and indeed lived up to the promise, if it was any softer it would have floated off the plate. The accompanying Cavolo Nero involved a degree of armed combat and I ate it on the side of my mouth with the most teeth.
Next course was Lemon Sorbet, served in true 1970s style in a hollowed-out lemon, I can’t imagine what indiscretion the kitchen staff member tasked with carving these out had committed, I could almost taste his tears of desperation. The sorbet was as close to perfect as is reasonable to expect, with a delightful texture and just tart enough. Following fast on its heels was Fresh Fig & Pecorino. The fig was adequate, similar in size to the single offering my fig tree has produced in over 10 years. I’m sure most of you are aware that figs aren’t technically fruit but inverted flowers. They require a specific type of pollination that can only come from fig wasps, these wasps have to die inside the fruit in order for the fruit to mature as figs cannot be pollinated by wind or normal bees. So, one would assume that figs are full of tiny dead wasps but no, this massively complicated inverted flower produces an enzyme called ficin which digests the dead wasps, and the fig absorbs the nutrients to create ripe fruit and seeds. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my inverted flower stuffed with the invisible wasp corpses, a little larger would have been good but mustn’t grumble. The Pecorino was fine although I prefer a type produced at a higher altitude as this leaves small crystals in the Cheese for added texture, although we should be grateful that we weren’t served the Sardinian variant where the larvae of the cheese fly are introduced into Pecarino Sardo to the produce the delicacy known as Casu Martzu or ‘rotten cheese’.
Finally, we were treated by Hazel’s Parkin, which was a masterpiece, perfectly moist and with a growing spicy gingery aftertaste, I propose that we finish every meal with this. Hazel obviously took her inspiration for this dish from the fact that in the first draft of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Mellors was called Parkin.
I will end on an inspirational quote from Lawrence:
‘If we sip the wine, we find dreams coming upon us out of the imminent night’
Sweet dreams fellow Bucklanders.
Dave Travis
Dinner Minutes Secretary
Menus for the D H Lawrence Dinner were designed and produced by Roger Hale.
