Step Inside India Hicks’s Enchanting Paradise #entertainingstory
Love India Hicks: She’s stylish , intelligent and adventurous an a mother of 5 !
Her fabulous new book is on my wishlist: Because who doesn’t want to dream and escape to somewhere glamorous …and entertain and socialise!
‘The style guru and designer shares her best entertaining tips and most intriguing tales in her newest book ..from architecturaldigest.com
‘In An Entertaining Story (Rizzoli, $50), Hicks not only divulges her best tips for hosting a good party—don’t miss the mouthwatering recipes by her beloved cook affectionately nicknamed “Top Banana”—but she also shares her own entertaining stories, from fond memories of eating breakfast in bed with her mother to some rather shocking tales. “My grandmother sat next to one of the last cannibal kings, and she said, ‘You tell me, what does human flesh taste like?’” says Hicks. “There are lots of crazy bits in there!”
Though she grew up in England, the tastemaker made the Bahamas her permanent home 25 years ago, raising her five children in the island life with her partner, David Flint Wood. Through throwing the kids’ birthday parties each year—five a year does add up, after all—Hicks discovered her passion for entertaining. “I found that I was an absolutely hopeless cook, but what I was quite good at was the decorating side of entertaining, whether it was decorating the table or the cake,” she laughs.
Her fêtes have become the stuff of legend on Harbour Island, whether they’re more intimate affairs like leisurely drinks on the beach at sundown or extravagant dinners served at long tables in the garden beneath fairy lights. So when she was approached to write a new book, these celebrations were a natural subject.
a tent with flowers
The book is organized by meal, but Hicks didn’t let the formality of chronology dictate its structure. “I thought, ‘What is the most important meal of the day?’” she says. “And that’s actually drinks—let’s face it. So we start with a drinks chapter!” From there, she meanders to dinner, lunch, tea and picnics, birthday and holiday treats, and finally British breakfasts.
“What I wanted to do was make this very, very personal, to put my unique touch on things,” says Hicks. “It’s a mix of island life and English eccentricities, and I think that’s probably pretty unique to me.” But the designer also recognizes that not everyone lives on an island, so she made sure her advice applies universally. “My point is, you can be imaginative in your own home and garden,” she says. “You can make something special and different very easily, with very little effort.”
$63 booktopia.com.au Available: 16th September 2020 rizzolibookstore.com
