Brown sauce, British food, and class politics, with Caroline O’Donoghue

02/04/20 • 32 min

Brown sauce, like many things in the UK, came from the spoils of empire. Also, like many things in the UK, it’s become a lightning rod for endless debates about class, snobbery, and English identity. Where did brown sauce come from, and why does it occupy such a fraught space in Britain’s public imagination?

Writer and novelist Caroline O’Donoghue has just joined Prospect as a life columnist, where she will be reflecting on the big stories behind our supposedly “small” everyday objects. She joins this week’s podcast to talk about the idea behind her column, and why she kicked it off with a reflection on the humble hero enlivening many an English plate: HP sauce. The tangy condiment has more to do with the Labour Party than you might think.

You can read Caroline’s first column for Prospect, on brown sauce, here: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/caroline-odonoghue-brown-sauce-column

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You can read Caroline’s first column for Prospect, on brown sauce, here: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/caroline-odonoghue-brown-sauce-column

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Grief in the age of the Internet

A WhatsApp group that got started on Twitter helped journalist Suchandrika Chakrabarti process personal grief that she had been carrying for decades. Adult orphans around the world have started a group chat in which members amongst themselves about loneliness, grief—and just about everything else.

At a time when social media seems to be dominated by shouty voices, division and trolls, could this WhatsApp group pave a new way of relating to one another online?

Suchandrika’s article can be found here: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/science-and-technology/orphans-young-whatsapp-grief-death-parent

And you can read Stephanie Boland’s article on Twitter here: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/philosophy/why-we-cant-handle-online-criticism

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Legal special: Judicial review in Boris Johnson’s Britain, with the Better Human podcast

Who will triumph in the battle for Britain's courts: Johnson or the judiciary? In the new issue of Prospect, our cover story goes behind the simmering politicisation of Britain’s judges in the era of Brexit, and we talk to senior judges and former Supreme Court justices on what they think will happen to the courts under Boris Johnson’s government. Judicial independence no more?

Prospect has teamed up with the Better Human podcast, a show by human rights barrister Adam Wagner, to discuss the fate of judicial review in Britain. Prospect editor Tom Clark is joined by Adam, along with Martha Spurrier, director of Liberty, Tessa Gregory, Partner at Leigh Day, and Charlie Falconer, Labour peer and barrister who helped drive through the constitutional reform act under Tony Blair’s government.

If you want to listen to the second half of the podcast – on the future of the Human Rights Act – you can visit the Better Human podcast here: https://anchor.fm/better-human

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.