In their wild state, pineapples are small, hard and bitter, and emerge from a thorny cup of razor-sharp leaves – a single fruit to each plant. They were domesticated into sweetness over hundreds of years by the Tupí-Guaraní tribe of Amazonia. It’s a long way from the tinned pineapple chunks destined to finish their days as a topping for a Hawaiian-themed pizza.

To finish up canned in syrup seems an ignoble end for the fruit once so prized in the West that it was known as ‘the King of Fruits’. From its first introduction into Europe in the sixteenth century, the pineapple displayed all the qualities necessary to join the most exclusive

Nov 2005

Once Upon a Time in Marburg

Tear Off Those Corsets

Jam Yesterday

From Moth to Cloth

Doves & de Havillands

Vita Brevis

The Roast Porpoise of Old England

Mrs Neele Checks In

Hitching Skirt and Wagon

Life Lessons from the Sinful Greek Girl

Romancing the Novelist

Off the Cuff

Waste Not, Want Not

The Woolworths Poltergeist

Great Oscillations

Beauty & Beastliness

Out of Lanarkshire

A Postcode of One’s Own

Picture Imperfect

Mistress of Disguise

Stitches in Time

Lost in Elizabeth

Class Myths

Blazing Their Own Trails

Wagon Lit

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