Kia ora koutou,
About twenty years ago I was in Unity Books looking around — it was one of the things I loved about living in the city — everything I liked was in walking distance — when I saw the cover of a book. The Book of Old Tarts. The Book of Old Tarts? I smiled as I picked it up. Elizabeth Hodder. Not a cookery writer I knew but, with a title like that, it was obvious I’d want to get to know her. So I walked out with the book, scuttled to the apartment, made a cup of tea, sat down, opened The Book of Old Tarts and read not only the recipes but the histories of tarts.
It starts with the Roman origins then Making Pastry followed by British Tart Baking, Savoury and Sweet, and their histories. Its out of print and a collector’s item now but the title never fails to make me smile. I admire the author, not only because of the recipes and histories inside but because she got the title so right.
Titles are very difficult, or at least I find them so. Once in a blue moon there’s a click and the title just comes and other times it takes ages and I’m never entirely sure. These are often the titles someone says to me, ‘What a great title’ and I think ‘Huh?’
And naming babies — if books or plays or short stories are hard, naming a baby is right out of the square. Naming characters is hard enough but at least I can change them when I see they’re not right for the character. Only a few brave people change their names and I applaud their courage.
Have you ever wanted to change your name?
I’ve already told you about the period in my life when I wanted to change my name simply because no–one pronounced it properly. Some did it on purpose because they thought it was an uppity name for a working–class kid, that Reeny was more appropriate and some genuinely didn’t know how to say it. There’s Renées all over the place now but for about fifty years I seemed to be the only one except in books about Paris before and during the second World War when someone called Pauline Mary Tarn actually changed her name to Renée Vivian. She was an English woman who wrote poems in French and like a few wealthy upper class British lesbians fled to Paris where they could be out, live normal lives and be part of the Parisian café scene, rub shoulders with notables like Simone de Beauvoir, Existentialist and Philosopher and her lover Jean–Paul Sartre. This all sounded a little bit exotic to a girl living in Greenmeadows but it seemed to give my name some authenticity. I mean if a poet living in Paris changed her name from something else to Renée then maybe it was okay?
As for book titles? I think you’d go a long way to beat Book of Old Tarts.
Have you got a favourite title?
Renée
