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Elizabeth Wellington Rollins on three generations under one roof, and everything said through food
It’s Christmas Eve in Mamaroneck, New York. Ninety-six-year-old Graziella has made the Feast of the Seven Fishes for her daughter Grace and granddaughter Ella. Ella, a twenty-something vegan, won’t eat a bite, so her four foot two nonna serves her a can of cat food instead. That’s the first scene.
Elizabeth and I talk about the Three Graces myth as a cycle of giving, accepting and giving back, the real neighbourhood behind Pearl Street, and why food carries so much of what these women can’t say out loud. We also get into her draft zero process and writing her way back to her nonna’s kitchen.
Guests include
Ruth Reichl · John Lanchester · Ayelet Waldman · Beatriz Williams · Robert Dugoni · Alison Espach · Yael van der Wouden · Fiona Davis · Rufi Thorpe · Allegra Goodman · Annabel Monaghan · Allison Pataki · Lauren Willig · Clare Pooley · Priya Parmar
New York Times bestsellers, a Women's Prize winner and Read with Jenna picks, plus dozens more of the most talked-about authors around.
Every conversation
I choose books that are beautifully written, tell a compelling story and stay with you. Here's every one so far, newest first.
Nothing on the shelf matches that yet. Try another author or book.
Fifty minutes with Ayelet Waldman
Every conversation goes somewhere I didn't expect. With Ayelet and A Perfect Hand, her Victorian marriage plot that's been called Jane Austen meets Nora Ephron, we went from her daughter's advice to toxic Victorian cosmetics to the scholars she hired to catch every anachronism.
- Finding the narrator's voice
- The daughter who inspired the premise
- Chasing Victorian language
- What life was really like below stairs
- Calipers and vanity science
- The experts who caught the anachronisms
- The three meanings of the title
- Escapism with a feminist conscience
Behind the Stories
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I keep the episodes spoiler free, so you can listen before you read. Behind the Stories is where we get to talk about the whole book: the twists, the endings and the questions I couldn't ask on air. It's also how you can help shape the show and support it as it grows.
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The books I can't stop recommending
My rolling top ten. Every one of these authors has been on the show, so you can hear the conversation and then buy the book.
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Not too high brow, not too low brow. Just right.
Hello, I'm Elena
I was born curious. Harriet the Spy was my idol and Nosey Bowes was my nickname, so it probably makes sense that I ended up asking people questions for a living.
I grew up in San Francisco, moved to New York in the eighties and then spent thirty years in London, where I raised three children who are more Blighty than Yankee. These days I'm back in Manhattan, but London is still my favourite city in the world and I'm over there as often as I can be.
I've written about design, culture and the business of getting older for The New York Times, British House & Garden, Architectural Digest, Town & Country and The Ethel. The podcast is where I get to do what I love most: read a great book, then ask the person who wrote it how on earth they did it.
More about meSee my commissions
MA in Journalism, Columbia University. MA with Distinction in Creative Writing, Kingston University.
A few things you might want to know about me
- I have my best thoughts on aeroplanes.
- I listen to books while I walk as much as I read them sitting down.
- Words I can't stand: pivot, circle back, low hanging fruit.
- I love linen sheets. So does our pug.
- Our Manhattan living room used to be a squash court.
- I wore dusty rose to my second wedding.
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The journal
Personal essays on marriage second time around, grandchildren, travel and ageing honestly.
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My rolling top ten, and every book I've loved enough to recommend.
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Essays and features for The New York Times, House & Garden, Architectural Digest and more.
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