Motherhood, you’ve been on our minds, to misquote Bob Dylan… so it’s only fitting that in this week’s episode Monica and Emma are joined by Jessamine Chan, the author of the New York Times Bestselling début novel The School for Good Mothers (2022). Together we cook up a not-at-all-dystopian (believe it or not) imaginary dinner party for one of our literary heroes, Kazuo Ishiguro. The 2017 Nobel Laureate for Literature (there will be champagne), Sir Ishiguro’s brilliant and wide-ranging oeuvre includes The Remains of the Day (1989, winner of the Booker Prize), Never Let Me Go (2005), and most recently, Klara and the Sun (2021). From Chicago (Jessamine), Paris (Monica), and Toronto (Emma), we plan a Notting Hill soirée that, if not quite up to Darlington Hall standards, will certainly end on a memorable note.

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Monica Ainley DLV @monicaainleyDLV

Emma Knight @emmalknight

Jessamine Chan @jessamine.chan

Dinner with Ishiguro playlist on Spotify by DJ Monica DLV

Books we mention:

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan 

The oeuvre of Kazuo Ishiguro, including The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go and Klara and the Sun

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

Movies we mention:

The Remains of the Day (1993), a Merchant Ivory Production, costumes (crucially) designed by Jenny Beavan and John Bright

Never Let Me Go (2010), directed by Mark Romanek, costumes by Rachel Fleming and Steven Noble

What’s cooking:

Emma’s Scottish Oatcakes recipe is in The Greenhouse Cookbook and sadly not on the inter webs, but here’s another from Healthy Little Foodies

Ditto Emma’s miso-glazed eggplant recipe (nasu dengaku), but here is a similar one from Pickled Plum

Hasselback butternut squash with maple and Fresno chilies via Bon Appetit

Gomae, aka blanched spinach with toasted sesame seeds and sesame dressing from Just One Cookbook

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