Meet some of the people and places that inspired Love & Saffron.
Pioneering Los Angeles food writer Barbara Hanson was the inspiration for Joan.
My Great-Uncle Frank and Great-Aunt Emma (holding me on the patio at the Camano Island cabin) inspired Francis and Immy.
My mom and dad (seen here in 1964 on Camano Island) inspired Immy's niece Kit and her fiance Michael.
The Camano Island cabin in 1958 (top) and when I visited the current owners in 2018.
When I visited the Camano cabin in 2018, I stood at the same window where my great-aunt and uncle held me in 1966.
Even Francis's homemade boat winch was inspired by real life!
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Photograph by Julie Fay Ashborn
Listen & Cook
While listening to the audio version of Love & Saffron, enjoy making Mussels à la Joan. It’s the perfect dish to serve your book club with fresh bread and chilled Chablis (as Joan would) or Sauvignon Blanc.
Recipe for Mussels à la Joan
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Read My Essay about Laurie Colwin
When I first read Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking, I was a few years out of college. Highlights in my culinary repertoire up to that point included Kraft macaroni and cheese and Rice-a-Roni. I did not, as Colwin did when she started out on her own, live in a Greenwich Village apartment the size of a placemat with no kitchen. I lived in Seattle and worked at a bookstore across town in Pioneer Square … Read the Essay
Love & Saffron is published in the UK by Two Roads Books/John Murray Press. This edition can be purchased in Australia, New Zealand, and other Commonwealth countries.
“In 1962, Joan, a young Californian woman sends a fan letter and a gift of saffron to her favourite columnist, Imogen, who’s twice her age and lives near Seattle. A friendship is formed through letters as both women write about their love of food and the sourcing of exotic ingredients like fresh garlic (!). Through their culinary adventures, new worlds open up for Joan and Imogen and bring with them new people. This charming, effervescent little novel (it’s a slim 200 pages) deserves to be a huge bestseller.” — Red Magazine
