Garlic & Pearls

Suzanne reflects on British attitudes to animals, from the Reverend Humphrey Primatt’s ‘animal theology’ to the founding of the RSPCA 200 years ago and later eruptions of violent pro-animal activism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In which Muriel introduces Suzanne to a group of brilliant women: the Précieuses, headed by Madeleine de Scudéry. Novelists, scholars and wits, they invented the salons, the art of conversation and a progressive idea of love. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suzanne gathers a fashionable cast - including Sherlock Holmes, Coco Chanel and Vivienne Westwood – to take Muriel through the warp and weft of Harris tweed's dramatic history. The only fabric still to have its own Act of Parliament, it was a battleground for Gaelic weavers, philanthropic aristocrats and punk fashionistas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Muriel introduces Suzanne to the French equivalent of  Alice in Wonderland , a memorably unsettling portrayal of childhood with enduring appeal, that shines a light on past and present ideas about French childrearing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suzanne remedies Muriel’s ignorance of cult BBC2 programme Ski Sunday and in the process unpacks the British obsession with and transformation of skiing from conveyance into fun downhill-racing activity. Raclette and Arthur Conan Doyle also feature! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over a glass of the legendary green aperitif, Muriel presents Suzanne with the history and myths of absinthe – its rise from local Alpine speciality to the metropolitan tipple of artists and boulevardiers, followed by its dramatic downfall, against a background of social anxiety about degeneracy and violence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this special day for swains and sweethearts Suzanne leads Muriel down surprising heritage pathways: tracking the relic of St Valentine’s head, wondering why French-style love poetry flourished after Agincourt, and revealing who adorned Victorian Valentine’s cards with dead birds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Where Muriel introduces Suzanne to a colossal French star who was the ambassador of American rock in France and became both a national monument and the incarnation of French masculinity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suzanne untangles an astonishing plot to do away with Napoleon III in 1858 Paris. Unfolding in the coffee houses of London and the industrial workshops of Birmingham, it is a riveting tale of Italian nationalists backed by British radicals, all dreaming of the Revolution! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In which Muriel unpacks for Suzanne the various hidden meanings taken on in France by the black polo neck. From Hollywood to the Left Bank, the humble polo neck acts as rallying sign for the counterculture as well as the Establishment, and no Existentialist would be seen without it! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Allegedly invented by accident in Slough, the army of wheelie bins now lining our streets is the latest iteration of British society’s attempts to manage waste. Suzanne ploughs heroically through centuries of ashpits, dustbins and cesspools, recounting many convulsions of public-spiritedness as she tries to get Muriel to think pragmatically about rubbish. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...

In which Muriel tells Suzanne the story of French concierges – the guardians of French buildings – involving systematic and distinctive urban planning begun in the 1830s, the proliferation of concierge imagery and mythology throughout literature, satirical cartons and vaudeville, and the real-life hardships faced by concierges in the past and in contemporary France. Hosted on A...

James Bond spread it on his breakfast toast; Paddington and Queen Elizabeth II kept marmalade sandwiches ‘for emergencies’; Scott of the Antarctic took some to the South Pole. Suzanne peels away layers of the history of marmalade as it evolved from dark quince paste to translucent bitter orange jelly and grew into a ubiquitous British export throughout the world, with Dundee as its capital city. A...

Where does the almond-filled ‘galette des rois’ come from? And why have the French clung so tenaciously to it through the centuries? Muriel unveils a seasonal French cake with ancient roots reaching back to Antiquity and many connections to royalty and power. And – not a moment too soon – Suzanne becomes Queen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suzanne dives into a 1920s compendium of sandwiches by Mary Woodman, retraces sandwich history and ponders the art of Successful Sandwich Making. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suzanne digs up an almost entirely forgotten British Christmas medieval tradition full of pomp and circumstance, including a special carol! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Muriel tells Suzanne about France’s uncanny parallel universe, where Christmas happens the day before Christmas. But are the French missing out on the art of waiting? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suzanne dissects the gloriously noisy tradition of the British Christmas cracker. There is a Victorian inventor, also some French bonbons, a diamond ring and plenty of explosions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did oysters (les huîtres) become enshrined in France as a traditional Christmas food? Muriel investigates. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Muriel explains the appeal of the ferocious, dark and crude madcap comedy that encapsulates Christmas for the French. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Where Suzanne opens Muriel’s Continental mind to the summit of British stagecraft – the rich and frivolous tradition of Christmas panto, an exhilarating hodgepodge of mumming, commedia dell’arte, post-Restoration theatre and up-to-the-minute satire. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Taking as a starting point a highly symbolic empty bottle of Eau de Cologne discovered by Suzanne in Denmark, Muriel explores the ways in which the French took possession of perfume – climate, savoir-faire, aristocratic patronage and the culture of display and seductiveness that developed in the 19th century. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By way of Ted Hughes’s  Remains of Elmet , Suzanne explores a scarred ancient landscape and brings back to life the ghosts of warring kings, Tudor wool weavers, brigands and Victorian dam builders.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The French adore comic book series ­– or  bandes dessinées  – featuring Asterix and Tintin. But Muriel tells Suzanne about another famous French character, a plucky heroine called Adèle Blanc-Sec, whose surreal fantastical adventures unfurl in 1900 Paris and involve encounters with pre-historic creatures, Babylonian demons and Egyptian mummies.    Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...