I get loads of messages every week asking for wine recommendations for various things – a birthday present, a special dinner, something for the fridge door – but at the moment all anyone wants to talk about is what to buy for Christmas. So this week’s wine recommendations are both around £10 and I’d happily …
It’s been a while. How are you? Yes, me too. Always tired. Could be my age, kids, work, hormones – take your pick. Anyway, it’s been a busy few weeks so I thought I’d share some highlights. First one, I’ve finished writing fiction book number three! Well, the first draft so there’s more work to …
They say you never forget your first love (I married mine but that’s another story). Anyway, point is when you first fall for someone – or something – you never forget it. With wine, the first place I fell for was France. When I was training to be a wine buyer for a big supermarket …
We’re back in big jumper season again and honestly, I’m thrilled. Much as I love the feel of sun on skin give me a polo neck, roaring fire and a glass of red any day. Or rather, evening. And when it comes to what’s in my glass I want something properly interesting and delicious. Step …
Okay, not exactly a watermelon. It was a jackfruit. No, me neither but apparently they’re the ‘meat’ of the vegetable world and you can make curries and stews out of them and it feels a bit like eating pulled pork. Anyway, I got to carry one this weekend on Saturday Kitchen before heading to the …
It’s here! My new (old) book The Knackered Mother’s Wine Guide is out now in paperback! When I first wrote it eight – EIGHT! – years ago I wanted the book to be like a (funny) Highway Code for wine, covering all the stuff you really need to know when it comes to choosing a …
I’m definitely feeling festive and that’s not just the trifle-flavoured cream liqueur talking. The tree is up, mince pies have been made (and eaten in front of The Holiday) and I’ve even managed to buy a few presents, albeit online and maybe a little wine-fluenced. Anyway, some of you have been asking for fizz recommendations …
Here’s a sobering thought: spend £5 on a bottle of wine and more than 60% of the cost is tax. That’s £2.23 on duty (gulp) plus another 20% on VAT. And whilst beer and spirits have enjoyed duty freezes in recent years, tax on wine has been rising for a decade (39% since since 2010 …
Last week was a bit of a monster. Work (so to speak) included hosting a cocktail tasting at a local Singles Night, speaking at a literary festival lunch for book clubs and doing a wine tasting for a great/thirsty bunch in London. Play (so to speak) included a Halloween Party for 14 kids and a …
I’m currently 60% rosé, 40% hot dogs and the school holidays haven’t even started yet. I blame the weather. And the football. Anyway, Eldest Boy breaks up on Friday, the other two at the end of next week. Then we’ve got six long weeks ahead and as usual I can’t wait/am dreading it in pretty …
So, here we are. As promised, there’s a bumper selection of suitably christmassy wines this week including the bargain champagne featured on last week’s This Morning. Yes, I did ACTUAL This Morning on the telly on Friday! A festive fizz tasting on ice with skating polar bears in the background. The clip’s on the KMWC …
They say the best things in life are free. Not altogether true (wine! luxury skincare!) but you get the gist. Anyway, last week I posted a picture on Instagram of these brightly coloured gin-filled baubles. Designed to hang on your Christmas tree and filled with Pickering’s Gin, they are, quite simply, gin-ius. Sadly, they’re not free (a …
Last week was mostly fuelled by codeine following knee surgery so I didn’t get to post. Instead I shared something on the KMWC Facebook page I’d prepared earlier: me flying on a trapeze. Filmed months before I did my knee in, obviously. Anyway more on that here next week but for now, given that it’s been …
I’m being forced to put my feet up. Or at least one of them because I’m having that knee operation tomorrow. So, this morning I went for one last walk on the forest with five friends and nine dogs and it was gorgeous. And funny: one friend turned up with a burst blood vessel in her …
So here we are, the kids still on holiday (mine go back next Tuesday. NEXT TUESDAY) and I’m still on crutches. It’s been a mad week work-wise too (although I do realise that tasting and writing about booze for a living means that I can’t really complain about anything, ever). Anyway, I think it’s best …
I realise it’s a bit like complaining that my diamond shoes are too tight but I got hit by a crazy skier last week whilst on the slopes in Austria and now I’m on crutches with a ruptured cruise ship (I’m told it’s cruciate but I prefer cruise ship) ligament. Which, given that I’ve got …
I kicked off my rose season properly yesterday with a glass at midday accompanied by this view. I’m in Austria and plan to spend much of the rest of the week drinking more wine and eating melted cheese. But the mood is definitely Spring-like, despite being surrounded by snow. So I’ve added a suitably Spring-friendly wine review below (you can even …
Currently, my kitchen table looks like some kind of crazy lady tiki bar. Turns out writing a book about homemade cocktails is a lot of fun. And messy. I did have a slightly awkward moment yesterday when buying a 1.5l bottle of vodka straight after the school run – I don’t think me saying “this isn’t …
This week sees the launch of the laugh-til-you-wee Scummy Mummies book, so to celebrate I thought we’d take a look at some suitably scummy wines. Written by Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorn, the book is a brilliant celebration of parenting failures, stuffed with hilarious confessions and top tips. For example, new parents! Save time by …
I’ve been dying to tell you about this: I’m writing another book. And this time, we’re back on the booze. Out next year, it’s all about how to make really good cocktails at home. So if you have any favourite cocktail recipes you’d like to share, I’d love to know about them! Email, leave a comment here or on Instagram or Facebook, whatever …
As ever, late to the party – our half term is this week. On the up side, mornings aren’t quite so early/shouty. On the down side, trampoline parks. We went to one yesterday afternoon and the kids flipped for an hour whilst I hid in a corner with my laptop, trying to hit a deadline. Honestly, you …
What a week it’s been: long, cold and the guy who was in Home Alone 2 briefly is to be President (I’m watching as I type). A highlight was Wednesday, when I went to sign books at a friend’s new wine shop in London, Wild & Lees. Not only did I get to see some of …
Last Saturday night, we had our biennial School Ball. It might be a tiny village school but when it comes to parties, it goes large. We’re talking black tie, dinner, dancing. For the last ten years I’ve had a go-to dress for such occasions: jade green, very Studio 54 (in my head). Minus the horse, obviously. Problem …
You know how kids get a sticker if they’re brave/don’t cry when they visit the dentist? I think parents should get one of those for surviving the school shoe shop. Honestly, the seventh circle of hell is a more pleasant place to hang out than the John Lewis children’s shoe department in the last week of the …
So, Mother’s Day on Sunday. Already looking forward to my cup of tea in bed, cards and a few hastily freshly picked daffodils from the garden. But given that I plan to be on the sofa, glass in hand whilst someone else does the washing up, I want something really lovely in my glass. So this week’s wines are freshly …
Ah, new year’s resolutions. Mine remain pretty much as they did last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. Basically, be healthy-ish and only shout when absolutely necessary. Usually, I’m an everything-in-moderation-including-moderation kinda girl. Except this year, for the first time ever, I’m going dry for January. No booze will pass my lips until …
You already know about my granola habit. Tonight – I blame Bake Off – I decided to move on to bread. Now, I love my carbs (how can you not love carbs?) and so when I saw the recipe for protein bread in Jamie Oliver’s new cookbook Super Food (a recent birthday present), I thought …
So, I went to Lake Como last week. I won’t go on about it (much) but SERIOUSLY. One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. And we had a Very Famous Person on our flight out. I realised something was up when one of the air stewards practically exploded with excitement and mouthed to …
Last weekend, the sun came out. And so did the rosé. There is something about pink wine that hints at summer better than any other wine – and it definitely shines in the sun. This is me, on Easter Monday, at a restaurant on the Isle of Wight called The Hut. If you are ever …
So, London Fashion Week finished yesterday. I know this because lots of pictures of the bottom half of people in ‘distressed’ jeans and bare ankles on my Instagram feed told me. I do love the circus of fashion but given that not wearing a fleece on the school run is a major fashion statement for …
Photo: Annie Spratt My friend Annie took this beautiful photo when she visited the project Mothers2Mothers in Kenya just a few weeks ago as part of Team Honk’s work to highlight projects being supported by Comic Relief. In Kenya, more than a million children have been orphaned after losing one or both parents to HIV. Mothers2Mothers …
On a shoot last week, hat at jaunty angle. This last week has been a blur of school music concerts, nativity plays (the cowboy theme totally worked, by the way), panic baking and just-about-making work deadlines. The children are so ready for the end of term and so excited about Christmas. Me too, not least …
Hooray for half term. Sort of. As we crawl towards it, I’m half-excited, half-panicking. Excited about not having to set the alarm quite so early. Panicking about fitting in some work. The children are most excited about Halloween, obviously. Which has turned into a monster (pun intended). They usually come back from Trick or Treating …
She’s laughing, not sneezing. I hope. Er, not me. I know! It was the Fortnum & Mason Awards last night and my book made it to the shortlist of three for best Drinks Book. But I was beaten by a (very good, apparently) cider book (this one here and see all the results here). The party, like ohmigod the …
Last week, some friends/awesome bloggers were in Tanzania reporting back on projects as part of this year’s Sport Relief. The one that really resonated was Bertha. She makes wine. In the words of T: Bertha explained to us that she makes about 600 bottles of wine a year. Bertha buys the bottles from local suppliers, …
The following exhaustive (and exhausting) list of wines appeared in Saturday’s Daily Mail, here’s a link if you want pictures of the bottles too. There’s 10 whites, 10 reds, 10 sparkling and 10 pudding/after dinner drinks. And this gorgeous picture was taken by the very lovely Juliette Neel. Sadly, it wasn’t used in the piece but …
OK, this isn’t mine. It’s Nigella’s. So, volunteering to make the school’s monthly birthday cake was a good idea at the time. But last night as I took the 5-egg cake out of the oven approaching midnight? Not so much. And this morning, as I iced the cake before school, Eldest Boy suggested that I …
“Are we going to run out of wine?” someone asked me last week. At first I thought they were referring to me personally, you know, at home. Which, frankly, just wouldn’t happen. We might frequently run out of milk, bread and bin liners but I have never, ever knowingly run out of wine. In fact, …
Not even a broken down car on the school run (luckily just after I’d dropped them at school) and an hour’s wait in the rain could dampen my spirits this morning. Because yesterday, I did a wine tasting with Sooty & Sweep. It was hilarious, a real Tena Lady moment as my sister would say. …
S’been a busy few weeks with book signings, wine tastings, radio interviews and writing. Amazing really, I feel very lucky. But I am looking forward to Friday, when my only plan is to wear a pair of pants on my head all day, for Red Nose Day. And in the evening, I will drink a …
Funny how things turn out sometimes. Yesterday, I got a flat tyre on the way to school. I had to kill an hour in town whilst waiting for a lift home: cue blissful time in the local bookshop, followed by a coffee and browse in my very favourite clothes shop, leaving in a pair of …
No, this is not about Bond. But it is about secrets and at the moment I’ve got – count them – three. That’s three things that people have told me and then said I’m not to tell anyone (yet). And they are all really good secrets, which makes it even harder, because when I’ve got …
So, if you know that Gris is the name of a grape, that joke is funny-ish. Actually, the grape is better known as Pinot Grigio, but I digress. Point is, I’ll be discussing Fifty Shades this week at Book Club. Over the Summer we also read Nora Ephron’s Heartburn – a brilliantly funny/heartbreakingly sad book …
I love Christmas. Family, friends, food, wine, laughs, late nights and slight indigestion just about sums up mine. But as much as you hold loved ones close at Christmas, you really miss the ones that aren’t here. So, here’s to the person or people you are missing this Christmas. Thinking of you. Current white in …
Rob is a wine trade expert, social media guru and knackered dad to boot. He talks and writes about wine for a living at Thirst For Wine, so I’m sure he was thrilled, really thrilled, when I asked him to write a post for us – which he’s done, beautifully – for nothing. Rob, you …
I’m friends with VB. Not that VB (seriously though, have you read Mrs Beckham’s interview in this month’s Vogue? She’s fab). This is Very Bored, or Very Bored in Catalunya to give her blog its full title. Luckily, boredom drives her to write very funny stuff. It also drives her to drink (in moderation, obviously) and she knows lots about good Spanish …
I love putting pretty hairclips in my daughter’s hair, sweeping her long fringe to one side and sweeping the enforced-genderism-at-such-a-tender-age argument to the other. It’s a hairclip, FFS. Anyway, point is with two boys I’d only really considered childrens’ haircuts in terms of nit prevention. Not so with the baby girl: she has lovely hair, long enough to need aforementioned hairclips to keep it out of her eyes. At …
For a while my habit was out of control. Not that I knew it at the time, of course. I thought I could control it: one week Hello!, the next Grazia, the following week, OK! My knowledge on high street fashion, royals and Cheryl Cole was impressive. But before I knew it, I was doing all three in …
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