Middle Eastern Cooking by Christine Osborne Prion pounds 12

Middle Eastern Cooking by Christine Osborne (Prion pounds 12.99) was evaluated by an expert in these cuisines who said she “liked it rather than loved it” but who gave it seven marks and called the book “a good introduction for someone new to cooking from this region.” Linda Collister’s Flavoured Breads, part of her “Baking Series” (Ryland Peters and Small, all pounds 7.99), got eight marks and high praise from a CGP who’s a dedicated home baker “Excellent value”, she said. “With Christmas coming up this would be a good present for a keen cook.” Take the hint?Chef’s books continue to emerge from eagerly competing publishers, with varying degrees of success. 150 Recipes From the Teahouse by Vivienne and Jenny Lo (Faber pounds 16.99) got only five out of 10: it’s not a terrible book, and the selection of recipes is generous, but there are better sources for the cuisines of China and Southeast Asia. The Sugar Club Cookbook by Peter Gordon (Hodder & Stoughton pounds 20) did better, described by our CGP as “not a book just for the coffee table” but “a great dinner party cookbook” She gave it seven out of 10, though I had my doubts.

The book makes stern demands on time and waistline and some ingredients are rare and costly. The Sugar Club is for special occasions and experienced cooks only. And even in an age of sloppy cookbook editing, the sloppiness of this one was depressing. But it was miles better than Hot Food by Paul and Jeanne Rankin (Mitchell Beazley pounds 9.99). “Even at pounds 9.99 people will expect more content, less hype,” said our CGP.

Lack of clarity in the recipes, messy design, impractical handling – all these earned Hot Food just three marks. “I’ve proved to myself that the recipes work for me, but I wouldn’t buy it.” Nor would I, and nor should you.. The world is awash with red wine, and so is my front hall Red is outselling white by a healthy margin, and .. wait, I have to answer the door. (PAUSE.) Back at the desk again, having just received yet another few bottles. Without further ado, a personal selection of some of the best for beef. Pride of place goes to Somerfield, which is selling Bright Brothers Atlantic Vines Baga, (pounds 3.49 from pounds 3.99 till 31 December).

I was making a painting – I do that every day – but I was listening a lot to the music, which has lyrics about prison and violence and the everyday misunderstandings of the black male.” Hip-hop, he says, is “really visual music” “You can picture what’s happening. Why doesn’t she once again work for world peace?! Oxford Museum of Modern Art (01865 722733), to 15 Mar 1998.. When the BBC asked Chris Ofili to take part in their series Date With an Artist, he nearly said no “I thought it was a crap idea,” he says candidly. Ofili is one of the young British artists who exhibited in the controversial “Sensation” show at the Royal Academy, where his painting The Blessed Virgin Mary, with its explicit photographs of female genitalia, provoked both enthusiasm and exasperation. He wasn’t a very good (visual) artist either, but he did understand about work God knows how many hours he spent in recording studios.

Ono seems not to have worked hard at anything she has made.I once organised an exhibition that included John and Yoko and am glad to say here that, in all the madness of their fame, they were both very nice John was good with the carpenters Yoko’s conversation was somewhat opaque None the less, she was trying to communicate Those were the days, I’m tempted to say Wrong: these are the days We are grown-up now, and more sensible I wish Yoko Ono were not in a time-warp. Walking through its white galleries, one wishes to return to the more vivid and Liverpool-rooted character of Lennon. The line in the song ” Get Back”, ie, “to where you once belonged” was sung by McCartney while glaring at Ono.Where did she, or does she, belong? In Oxford we encounter a lonely, as well as a stateless, exhibition. Lennon’s “Julia” is a message to the Beatle’s dead mother that her son (born 1940) has someone to replace her. She was first in the studio when the Beatles recorded “Revolution”. Ian MacDonald’s excellent and scholarly Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the 1960s (Pimlico, pounds 8.99) tells us that John Lennon met Ono just before the recording of “Strawberry Fields”.