The subtitle of this book is A Woman's Recipe For Living, but for it to be truly that she needed to join the dots more fully between the chapter where she's written a Letter To My Much Younger Self and the older, more fabulous self she became: she who winters in Morocco, runs culinary tours, makes TV shows, refuses to be defined by her age and throws parties everywhere she goes.
Beat Till Stiff is funny, thought-provoking, confessional and, as you read it, you hear Mathias' distinctive voice. It has an appealing vintage look and charming illustrations.
Still, you might think twice before snapping it up as a last-minute Christmas gift for Nana unless you're certain she's open-minded. As Mathias' parents (in their 90s and still married) would surely warn, there's always a sex chapter. Plus there's drug-taking, a near fatal encounter with a bottle of whisky and a great deal of startling honesty. If Nana can take all that then she's going to have a good time with this book. Mathias is entertaining to her very bones, she just can't help it. She's the sort of person who is described as "colourful" and "irrepressible" and while not all of us can be those things, nor might we want to, the philosophy underpinning this collection seems pretty universal - that all of us can change ourselves for the better, whether that involves putting on a brighter lipstick or extricating ourselves from a bad situation.
Having said that ... can you write us a proper autobiography next time Peta, please?
