OH MY MELLOW NO.27

No tricks, only treats in our autumnal hotlist of the season’s best TV shows, books and podcasts.

Cate Blanchett brings kudos to any project, whether throwing avant-garde shapes with Sparks at Glastonbury or donning a flame-red wig in this year’s woeful sci-fi action film Borderlands – a rare misstep of which she quipped: “It’s not ‘Citizen Kane!’ But quality is surely guaranteed in Disclaimer out later this month, a small-screen Apple TV+ miniseries directed by Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón based on Renée Knight’s bestselling book of the same name. Yes, like so many glossy streamers these days it’s about another white, wealthy, vocationally successful family with skeletons in its closet. But with Blanchett opposite Sacha Baron Cohen, Kevin Kline and Kodi Smit-McPhee, all beautifully framed by Cuarón, it’ll surely be a bingebuster.

One of Dublin’s best-loved gastropubs, The Old Spot in Dublin 4 is lifting the lid on some of its most popular dishes in this recipe book written by food and drinks doyenne Aoife Carrigy and published by Nine Beans Row. “Their Sunday roast is the best roast in Ireland,” once declared Paul ‘Ross O’Carroll-Kelly’ Howard of the Michelin-recommended pub, in a recipe you can attempt to recreate at home, as well as its mussels pil pil, oozy pies and short-rib lasagne. They may not turn

out quite as picture-perfect as the ones photographed here by Ruth Calder-Potts but sure we’ll give it a go.

Another photographer of note is London-based Penny Wincer (also host of the podcast Not Too Busy to Write), whose interiors shoots have graced many a magazine spread. Her favourite part of such projects, she says, is getting to know home owners, learning about their precious objects and their connections with their properties. In her new coffee table book Home Matters she guides us through the houses of 13 artists, writers and designers, which in turn prompts questions about our own past, present needs, and what values we want to communicate through our personal spaces. Just add your favourite Moon + Mellow pyjamas, curl up and browse its handsome pages.

If knowledge is power and time is money, Womanica is a double whammy of joy: as well as profiling the trailblazing women we should’ve learned about in classrooms (or at least should be given more credit where it’s due in popular culture), each episode is around 10 minutes so you can fly through them quicker than you can say “encyclopaedia”. And in the spirit of Halloween, this month it has a Scream Queens series, unlocking the facts and fiction surrounding the serpent-haired Greek gorgon Medusa, Gothic writer Daphne du Maurier, Interview with the Vampire author Anne

Rice, and La Patasola, the one-legged lady blood-suckers from South American folklore.

 

Nope. We’re not having it. We’re not packing away our summer clothes until one last sunny fling in Southern Europe this season, for which we’re packing this Jardin Burnt Red Maxi Dress whose oversized leaf pattern references both deep golden tans and autumn leaves. It’s 100pc organic cotton poplin is super cool while piping details and extra deep pockets combine style and substance.