After three years of an English degree, the last thing I want to be reading right now is anything too heavy, intellectually challenging, dense, with difficult concepts, tackling religion or you know, terrorism or something. What I needed after my final year was something light, with twists and turns, affairs and scandals but ultimately not have me scratching my head. Or be too difficult I want to give up. Or be boring.
The Art of Baking Blind is just this. As a baker and Mary Berry enthusiast, I cannot rave about this novel enough. The basic premise is a competition. A baking competition nonetheless: The Search for the New Mrs Eaden (Mrs Eaden being, in my head, basically Mary Berry). Cue five amateur bakers entering this competition, all with their own emotional baggage and with their own turbulent reasons for entering. Bereavement, unfulfilling lives, loneliness, poverty… you name it there’s a slightly depressing reason for each competitor entering.
To be honest, I’m always pretty damning of ‘shit lit’. You know, holiday reads - that kind of vibe. I get bored of it, I find it slow and poorly written and generally…pretty stupid. Which is mean of me, but honest. And I have to say, when this book was leant to me whilst I was on work experience at Hodder and Stoughton, under the premise of ‘oh, if you like baking, you should read this’, I was a bit… well… dubious.
I eat my words. And take all those feelings back.
Sarah Vaughan creates well rounded, troubled, yet truly ‘human’ and ‘relatable’ characters in her novel. By telling the narrative through varying character’s points of view – even through the writing and posthumous narrative of Kathleen Eaden herself – you get to know the characters in depth and really associate with them. I loved them all in their own way, and found myself championing certain characters to win, or getting infuriated with them when they dropped sponges or messed up their choux pastry.
Okay, it is a bit pithy. But that’s part and parcel of baking is it not? The Great British Bake Off is my favourite TV programme, but it’s the epitome of pithy. The dramatic catastrophes are so middle class, but that’s why we all love it, no? I mean there’s nothing more middle class really than watching people bake various different breads for an hour is there? Unless you actually pop out to John Lewis, and buy a new sofa and state of the art TV to watch it on.
Reading The Art of Baking Blind was like my guilty pleasure that is watching Bake Off. Be it in the bath, before bed, on a rainy Sunday, or my commute, I could just pick up this book and share my love of baking with these strangers, but also become involved in their lives. The fact I did genuinely feel so involved is pure commendation to Vaughan’s writing.
I could rave about this book all day. I read it from front to cover in less than a week and would recommend it to pretty much everyone. If you’ve ever baked a cake, buy it. If you’ve ever watched an episode of Bake Off and enjoyed it, buy it. If you like chick lit about rocky marriages, unruly children and deep dark secrets, buy it. Basically, just buy it. And read it. And I promise you, you’ll love it.
Hodder & Stoughton, available 3rd July 2014