28 Tuesday Apr 2026
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On Sir Terry Pratchett’s birthday, here is a handy reading order guide for Discworld newcomers. Looking it over kind of makes me want to start again from the beginning. But first I will have to remember how to READ A BOOK. Wish me luck.
22 Wednesday Apr 2026
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I think I read this book maybe 20 years ago and I remember at the time being quite inspired by it (though now I don’t recall anything specific about it). So now that I am writing more, and more often than not careening back and forth between acute impostor syndrome and looming deadline panic, I was thinking it could be a good time for a re-read. Except now of course I can’t find it anywhere in the house. I find it hard to believe it would have been included in The Great Cull before moving to the present Casa Azahar but if it doesn’t turn up soon I will get another copy. Turns out there is a new 25th anniversary edition, so might be worth updating anyhow. Of course then I will have to re-learn how to read…
18 Wednesday Feb 2026
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Look what has arrived! My good friend Jorge Guitián has published his first solo book. Congratulations Jorge! Now all I need is for him to come to Sevilla and sign it. 🙂
This essay reflects on how cuisine has become a powerful mirror of societal transformations. It questions issues such as the meaning of haute cuisine, the role of criticism, culinary traditions, and new food dynamics. But it is not only a diagnosis: it is also a poetic and urgent call to reconnect with what is authentic, familiar, and everyday.
03 Thursday Jul 2025
Look what came today! Been looking forward to this, the companion book to my friend Sarah Jane Evans MW‘s The Wines of Norther Spain. I even get a nice mention for advising Sarah Jane (ever so slightly) about Sevilla wines, still very much unheard of, even here. Excellent timing to help with research I’m presently doing for a couple of Bitesize Sevilla articles as well as an upcoming travel piece for Decanter.
Things are hopping down here in the south. As Sarah Jane says in her book, if she had written the chapter on Andaculía ten years ago it would have been very different. Exciting times. Also nice to see so many people I’ve come to know over the years mentioned in the book. Worth taking a look.
25 Monday Nov 2024
As seen on Bluesky…
casa azahar 