It's dire, and so inappropriate for her target audience. I also think about people with literacy issues, or non-native English speakers - I often follow recipes in Catalan or Spanish, and I would give up immediately if they were written Jack-style.Withoutmyself too much, my career involves a lot of writing and editing content. I often hire junior writers, fresh out of English or Journalism degrees, and gawd, their work is a lot like Jack's terrible Nigella impersonation. Also, a LOT of ridiculous flowery words, with no thought to the reader.I often have to remind people that fewer words are often better. They aren't writing a uni essay. Stop filling the page with bollocks to fill your word count.
Jack's brand is that she writes for people with little time or money, free copies to foodbanks etc. So why include cutesy anecdotes about your son? A lot of her writing is about her lazily making breakfast blah blah. That's completely off brand for people who are working six days a week on minimum wage. The original recipe style was actually fine and the sort of thing you could follow with little cooking experience.
I think she's also trying to copy the styles of these recipe blogs who absolutely babble on for an eternity about their trips to Italy or their grandma's kitchen, because they think it's good for SEO. That only really works if the page has useful information -- i.e. different cooking methods, wine pairings, freezing instructions or whatever. If people arrive at that wall of text they're going to immediately click back, which is going to tank your Google ranking.
Oh shit, look at all that crap I just wrote. I've caught Jackitis.
Her fruit cocktail yorkies were sad, flaccid looking husks too, so presumably she's used the same method (the one which doesn't involve buying Aunt Bessies).What I don’t understand is, why she can relay a Yorkshire pudding recipe/method, but in the photographs of hers, they’re sad, flaccid looking husks. So does she copy the recipe from somewhere else but not actually do it?
I am confused, wasn't Jack an alcoholic? now she is drinking?€2? Where was she? I thought she claims she’s not had a holiday since 1876 and I don’t recall Southend joining the eurozone...
adam frost is too nice - Geoff Hamilton would not take that shitGardener Jack reminds me of her interactions with Adam Frost on DKL where she kept asking stupid questions like ‘have you ever grown beans’ and then told him he was ‘really getting the hang of this presenting lark’. Would tell her not to quit the day job but she doesn’t really have a day job.
Didn’t someone invent some sort of web doodad that finds the recipe among all the word salad and saves you time. Bloggers were pissedWithoutmyself too much, my career involves a lot of writing and editing content. I often hire junior writers, fresh out of English or Journalism degrees, and gawd, their work is a lot like Jack's terrible Nigella impersonation. Also, a LOT of ridiculous flowery words, with no thought to the reader.I often have to remind people that fewer words are often better. They aren't writing a uni essay. Stop filling the page with bollocks to fill your word count.
Jack's brand is that she writes for people with little time or money, free copies to foodbanks etc. So why include cutesy anecdotes about your son? A lot of her writing is about her lazily making breakfast blah blah. That's completely off brand for people who are working six days a week on minimum wage. The original recipe style was actually fine and the sort of thing you could follow with little cooking experience.
I think she's also trying to copy the styles of these recipe blogs who absolutely babble on for an eternity about their trips to Italy or their grandma's kitchen, because they think it's good for SEO. That only really works if the page has useful information -- i.e. different cooking methods, wine pairings, freezing instructions or whatever. If people arrive at that wall of text they're going to immediately click back, which is going to tank your Google ranking.
Oh shit, look at all that crap I just wrote. I've caught Jackitis.
Well, well, well. The power of being a moderator has gone straight to your head. (Joking, I agree x)No
Also (and not to anyone in particular) and don’t want to piss on anyone’s birthday chips but as there are SO many Aries here (as we found out yesterday), please can the birthday messages that are solely ‘Happy Birthday’ be put on the Food and Drink thread in off topic? For anyone who doesn’t know, this was made last year for general chat. I know we are a lovely bunch but when there’s loads of messages just saying ‘Happy birthday’, it fills the thread up faster and makes it difficult for people just wanting to catch up on Jack.
Sorry for my boring mod message. Feel free to grumble about me in private
She referred to the radio play with June Whitfield as 'the dramatisation of my first book'. In the introduction she says she had fantastic cookery teachers and left with the 'gentle confidence that I knew my way around a carton of chopped tomatoes' - didn't she say recently she was no good at cookery in school?There are many factors to her decline - no clear brand, prickly personality, endless drama, terrible TV presence and, above all, shit food.
But it's also worth looking at how her style of recipe writing has evolved.
This is from her early days at the Guardian:
View attachment 495517
...and this is from her blog now:
View attachment 495518
I apologise for the screenshot there - Jack's website is not optimised for mobile. But I think the problem is clear. She thinks of herself as a Writer with a capital W. She really, really isn't one. The result? Recipes that are essentially unreadable, as well as inedible.
My old uni lecturers used to mark you down for excessive words that had little to do with the topic.Withoutmyself too much, my career involves a lot of writing and editing content. I often hire junior writers, fresh out of English or Journalism degrees, and gawd, their work is a lot like Jack's terrible Nigella impersonation. Also, a LOT of ridiculous flowery words, with no thought to the reader.I often have to remind people that fewer words are often better. They aren't writing a uni essay. Stop filling the page with bollocks to fill your word count.
Jack's brand is that she writes for people with little time or money, free copies to foodbanks etc. So why include cutesy anecdotes about your son? A lot of her writing is about her lazily making breakfast blah blah. That's completely off brand for people who are working six days a week on minimum wage. The original recipe style was actually fine and the sort of thing you could follow with little cooking experience.
I think she's also trying to copy the styles of these recipe blogs who absolutely babble on for an eternity about their trips to Italy or their grandma's kitchen, because they think it's good for SEO. That only really works if the page has useful information -- i.e. different cooking methods, wine pairings, freezing instructions or whatever. If people arrive at that wall of text they're going to immediately click back, which is going to tank your Google ranking.
Oh shit, look at all that crap I just wrote. I've caught Jackitis.
insert the piece of paper!She referred to the radio play with June Whitfield as 'the dramatisation of my first book'. In the introduction she says she had fantastic cookery teachers and left with the 'gentle confidence that I knew my way around a carton of chopped tomatoes' - didn't she say recently she was no good at cookery in school?
She intimated that she was too poor to do well in home ec at school - pupils would have to bring in the ingredients, and if a recipe called for marscapone, her mum would give her some babybel insteadShe referred to the radio play with June Whitfield as 'the dramatisation of my first book'. In the introduction she says she had fantastic cookery teachers and left with the 'gentle confidence that I knew my way around a carton of chopped tomatoes' - didn't she say recently she was no good at cookery in school?
#thread title? Incapability Brown?Surely incapable brown!
Just stopped for a piss/sandwich (if that's okay with you?) and been having a look here. Really quite 'interesting' as a veganish 90% of the reviews had my spidey senses tingling.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49435765-good-food-for-bad-days
Proper order!My old uni lecturers used to mark you down for excessive words that had little to do with the topic.
(Fully expecting message groups called ‘The I Hate Poca Club’ to be sprouting up.)Well, well, well. The power of being a moderator has gone straight to your head. (Joking, I agree x)
https://giphy.com/P7qFEMh3TLMGY
Jennifer, are you here? Give us a sign!Jennifer rated it it was ok
7 months ago
IDK why I keep picking up her cookbooks. More oddball combos of ingredients resulting in unappealing recipes that seem inedible even in concept. I' m afraid I will never get over seeing her propose a pasta and tinned mandarin dish,, (not this title) (less)
Jennifer gave the book two stars on Goodreads.
Is there a way to mark a book “absolutely do not want to read”?Just stopped for a piss/sandwich (if that's okay with you?) and been having a look here. Really quite 'interesting' as a veganish 90% of the reviews had my spidey senses tingling.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49435765-good-food-for-bad-days
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