PHILIPPA BREWSTER

Philippa Brewster was a JanetteWinterson's close friend as well as her first editor. She ‘discovered' the young girl and gave her the big break by publishing her first novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.

MRS BEETON'S QUOTATION AND THE MAKING OF MARMELADE

"When thick rinds are used the top must be thoroughly skimmed, or a scum will form marring the final appearance" (‘The making of Marmalade' by Mrs Beeton)
Translation: "Quando si usano scorze spesse, la parte più in superficie deve essere raschiata con cura altrimenti si formerà uno strato di impurità  e rovinerà l'aspetto finale".

" The making of Marmalade" is a cook book written by Mrs Beeton, one of the most famous cookery writers. The aim  of the book is to describe how to make different types of marmalade.

Nell Gwynn was a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England. She has been called a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration and has come to be considered a folk heroine, with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of Cinderella.

Her family was certainly of Welsh origin. Her father, Captain Thomas Gwynn, appears to have been a soldier ruined by the Civil War. Her mother, who lived with Nell for some time, drowned in a pond at Chelsea (Middlesex) in July 1679, apparently after becoming inebriated.

Nell Gwynn, who originally sold oranges in the precincts of the Drury Lane Theatre, became an actress at the age of only fifteen, through the influence of her first lover, the actor, Charles Hart. Her success as an actress was largely due to John Dryden, who wrote characters especially for her, having made a study of her airy and irresponsible personality.

Nell lived either in Pall Mall in Westminster or Church Street in Windsor, in order to be near the King while at his palaces. Her last appearance on the stage was in late 1670, as Almahide to Hart's Almanzor in The Conquest of Granada by Dryden. Its production had had to be postponed for some months while the theatre awaited her return after the birth of her first son by King Charles.

She died at her London home in November 1687, and was buried on the 17th, according to her own request, in the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

BOOK OF THE BIBLE

Genesis: The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. It is about how God creates the world and appoints man as his regent, but man proves disobedient and God destroys his world through the Flood. The new post-Flood world is equally corrupt, but God does not destroy it, instead calling one man, Abraham, to be the seed of its salvation. At God's command Abraham descends from his home into the land of Canaan, given to him by God, where he dwells as a sojourner, as does his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and through the agency of his son Joseph, the children of Israel descend into Egypt, 70 people in all with their households, and God promises them a future of greatness. This narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, successively narrowing in scope from all mankind (the covenant with Noah) to a special relationship with one people alone (Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob).

Exodus: The Book of Exodus is the second book of the Hebrew Bible. The book tells how the children of Israel leave slavery in Egypt through the strength of Yahweh, the god who has chosen Israel as his people. Led by their great prophet Moses they journey through the wilderness to Mount Sinai, where Yahweh promises them the land of Canaan (the "Promised Land") in return for their faithfulness. Israel enters into a covenant with Yahweh who gives them their laws and instructions for the Tabernacle, the means by which he will dwell with them and lead them to the land.

Leviticus: The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible. Leviticus rests on two crucial beliefs: the first, that the world was created "very good" and retains the capacity to achieve that state although it is vulnerable to sin and defilement; the second, that the faithful enactment of ritual makes God's presence available, while ignoring or breaching it compromises the harmony between God and the world.

Numbers: The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible. Numbers is the culmination of the story of Israel's exodus from oppression in Egypt and their journey to take possession of the land God promised their fathers. As such it draws to a conclusion the themes introduced in Genesis and played out in Exodus and Leviticus: God has promised the Israelites that they shall become a great (i.e. numerous) nation, that they will have a special relationship with Yahweh their god, and that they shall take possession of the land of Canaan. Against this, Numbers also demonstrates the importance of holiness, faithfulness and trust: despite God's presence and his priests, Israel lacks faith and the possession of the land is left to a new generation.

Deuteronomy: The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible. Traditionally accepted as the genuine words of Moses delivered on the eve of the occupation of Canaan, a broad consensus of modern scholars see its origins in traditions from Israel (the northern kingdom) brought south to the Kingdom of Judah in the wake of the Assyrian destruction of Samaria (8th century BCE) and then adapted to a program of nationalist reform in the time of King Josiah (late 7th century), with the final form of the modern book emerging in the milieu of the return from the Babylonian exile during the late 6th century.

Joshua: The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible. Joshua forms part of the biblical history of the emergence of Israel which begins with the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, continues with their conquest of Canaan under their leader Joshua (the subject matter of the book of Joshua), and culminates in Judges with the settlement of the tribes in the land.

Judges: The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew bible and the Christian Old Testament. It contains the history of Biblical judges, divinely inspired prophets whose direct knowledge of Yahweh allows them to act as decision-makers for the Israelites, as military deliverers from oppression for foreign rulers, and models of the proper behaviour required of them by their god.

Ruth: The Book of Ruth is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, or Old Testament.
In the time of the judges, a famine arose in the land of Israel, in consequence of which Elimelech with Noemi and their two sons emigrated from Bethlehem of Juda to the land of Moab. After Elimelech's death Mahalon and Chelion, his two sons, married Moabite wives, and not long after died without children. Noemi, deprived now of her husband and children, left Moab for Bethlehem. On her journey thither she dissuaded her daughters-in-law from going with her. One of them, however, named Ruth, accompanied Noemi to Bethlehem. The barley harvest had just begun and Ruth, to relieve Noemi's and her own poverty, went to glean in the field of Booz, a rich man of the place. She met with the greatest kindness, and following Noemi's advice, she made known to Booz, as the near kinsman of Elimelech, her claim to marriage. After a nearer kinsman had solemnly renounced his prior right, Booz married Ruth who bore him Obed, the grandfather of David. The second part of the book consists in a brief genealogy which connects the line of David through Booz with Phares, one of the sons of Juda.