Happy International Women's Day!

In honour of this day, celebrating the lives and work of extraordinary women, I have written a blog about one of English literature's most famous heroines: Jane Eyre.

The piece, written for Bookishly, discusses whether Jane Eyre should be considered a 19th century feminist, or just a precursor for Anastasia Steele, in love with a Victorian Christian Grey.

You can find the original article here. If you agree with or strongly object to my thoughts, I'd love to know.

In the past few months I have written a variety of things. To-do lists, shopping lists, diary entries, translations, articles, recipes, poems (bad ones), work notes, play ideas, letters and several drafts of blog posts. When I don't write for a while my fingers start to itch, and I feel an overwhelming need to pick up a pen and scribble. The subject matter varies from the functional to the fictional, and occasionally I think I muster up a half-decent joke along the way. I currently have two foodie blog posts in draft-form, plus an interview waiting impatiently to be transcribed. Hopefully I'll get myself in gear at some point and finish them for this blog. In the meantime, there are other things to say.

If you've ever read this blog before you'll know how much food culture and history fascinate me, how they shape and reflect our society and tell us so much about ourselves. The thing is, I'm passionate about a lot of other things, too. Theatre. Books. Feminism. History. Mountains. Interesting words. And I'd like to write about those as well. Therefore, rather than setting up a new blog in order to indulge in these interests, I've decided to re-mould this one. So, from now on, Quirk and Spoon, will no longer be solely dedicated to food writing. It will definitely still include it (so help me if I don't get round to finishing that piece on porridge), but there'll be other things popping up every so often. Thoughts on a novel, a theatre review, a meditation on a trip or an unusual object, perhaps. Who knows? The plan is to be flexible, and, if possible, eloquent. So watch this space. I'll be back soon.