Today I am very excited to report that at last we have a Charlie Chaplin recipe to test.  This is almost the Holy Grail for us (when Marilyn Monroe’s diaries are published in October we will have it!) and this is such a ridiculously exciting moment.  Is this sad? That I’m beside myself with excitement over a recipe?!  So a big thank-you to one of our blog readers Stuart Fleming for the tip-off.  The recipe is in a cookbook that dates from 1916 and also features someone else hitherto unrepresented in our collection.  FATTY ARBUCKLE.  I may need to have a lie down.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled Silver Screen Supperers – so far nothing in our collection (over 3500 recipes now) by Ava Gardner…  There will be a PRIZE for anyone who finds one of those!  I know that the Ava Gardner Museum produced an Ava Gardner cookbook which included some of her recipes, but every attempt I’ve made to obtain it has failed!  So if you have a copy of this tucked away in your kitchen please get in touch.

I had a wonderful Sunday at Daryl’s place. It was a glorious day and we sat outside admiring the beans, courgettes and tomatoes gently spouting forth in his city garden.  It amused me greatly that every now and then we would hear a sheep baa or a cow moo as his garden backs on to the Kentish Town Urban Farm.

There were two “Carry On” moments during the afternoon.  The first was a close encounter at the top of a step ladder as I tried to look over the fence at sheep.  The second involved the zip on my dress deciding to part company from the bottom up.  I required some assistance with that…

Late in the afternoon Daryl’s upstairs neighbour popped his head out of the window to say hello and he was invited down for a piece of Carole’s Lombard’s pie.  He was a font of information about Hollywood stars and we amused each other by imitating Bette Davis pretending to be Joan Crawford in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane”.  My favourite of his stories was the one about how Joan could cry to order, FROM EITHER EYE…  Genius.

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