Buy First Catch Your Calamari: Travels with an Appetite (A Writer's Food Diary) by Julian Roup:
Amazon (UK): click here
Amazon (US): click here
Amazon (Canada): click here
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Here is a book for everyone who loves food and travel. It is a book that will introduce you to the foods of Africa, Europe and the USA with great company along the way. This is not a gourmand’s book of overindulgence, but a slow savouring of the food that has nourished the author’s imagination and taste over a lifetime.
The son of a baker, Julian Roup grew up in South Africa with two powerful food cultures, his mother’s French-Dutch-Norwegian heritage and his father’s Eastern European Jewish food tradition. The mix provided him with sophisticated and discerning taste buds from the earliest age.
His journeys around South Africa, Mozambique and Angola provide tales of adventurous travel well stocked with interesting food. Emigrating to the UK in 1980, he discovered a whole new world of tastes in Europe as he ventured into his new continent from Greece to Portugal, Spain to France and Italy, with visits to America’s West Coast as well. He is as interested in the taste of bread as he is in cordon bleu.
Roup is best known for his books on the environment, horse riding, fishing and politics, but now he invites you to join him on his trail out of Africa to Europe and America, with all the colour and tastes of the places he fell in love with.
This is a book that will feed your appetite to break bread and to take to the road once more in search of the best the good earth offers us.
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About the author
Julian Roup is the author of three non-fiction books: a children’s book, A Day In the Life of an MP; A Fisherman in the Saddle, a memoir of growing up in South Africa; and Boerejood, which explores the miracle of peaceful change to democratic rule in South Africa in 1994.
Boerejood received critical praise from many, including the Financial Times in the UK, which described it as: “Brilliant, engaged, intelligent, personal….and funny”. The FT ran a 2,000-word feature on the book as its Weekend Magazine cover story in May 2006.
Julian Roup has a background which combines marketing, journalism and public relations.
Born in South Africa in 1950, he lived in Cape Town for the first 30 years of his life. He has a journalism degree from Rhodes University in South Africa, and worked at the Cape Times and the Cape Argus before emigrating to England in 1980, where he started off writing for the Mid Sussex Times.
He founded his own PR consultancy, Bendigo Communications, in 1993. Clients have included: Virgin Atlantic, Bonhams, Bradford & Bingley, and the Development Agency for the Western Cape in South Africa. He has also created PR campaigns for clients including the British Army, Black Horse Agencies, Christie's, the Government of Malta, the London Underground, British Rail InterCity, NSPCC, and the RSPCA.
He worked as Director of Press and Marketing for Bonhams, the international fine art auction company, for 12 years.
Praise for Julian Roup
Evocative of Annie Dillard's chapter about The Tree with the Lights in it, in her book ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’. Beautifully done, Julian.
Leslie Moïse
It is a rare thing to find a book which speaks intimately of a place both you and the author know and love, but even if you aren;t acquainted with Ashdown Forest the appeal is just as strong. Julian brings this magical place to life on the page with a rare depth of feeling. Essential reading and highly recommended - a modern day equivalent to Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain for the other end of the country!
Paul McKinnel
Beautifully written. You speak the words that we feel in our hearts. Thank You to horses everyday, everywhere. X
Diane Rainbow
This is an amazing piece of writing - absolutely captivated by it and think the author perfectly explains that exquisite relationship that women are able to have with horses. Mine definitely used to give me that illusion of power and strength and almost winged flight all the time. I’ve been to parts of South Africa too and loved the descriptions of the riding country. Thank you for sharing this.
Helen Elizabeth Stone
While reading this lovely woods hymn, I was thinking how I felt exploring the great East Texas forest and had only one word - free. A horse allows freedom.
Kay Motley
I thought you’d like this because a) he writes beautifully; and b) the South African connection.
Miranda Kavanagh
Buy First Catch Your Calamari: Travels with an Appetite (A Writer's Food Diary) by Julian Roup:
Amazon (UK): click here
Amazon (US): click here
Amazon (Canada): click here
Barnes & Noble: click here
Apple Books: click here
Waterstones: click here