Hello and welcome to the June 2026 Compendium.
This is the place where once a month I share a few things that have held my attention and/or suit the time of year that I hope will feed your senses. Things to eat, drink, listen to, and more. Thank you for the comments, emails and Notes relating to earlier ones: I’m delighted it’s being so well received.
I’ve decided to move them to the first Sunday of the month, rather than the last, as they feel more forward looking than back.
1: Hello again
Happy June to you.
At last, that chilly north wind has left us here in the southwest of England, and it’s been properly warm. Make that ‘bleddy hot’. And now nicely blowy.
On cooler spells that coincide with low tides, we take the furry cylinder of never-ending excrement to his favourite place, with his favourite ball.
I hope June finds you near open water and with the scent of elderflower still at its peak. I have a few elderflower recipes for you below.
And other things that I hope you’ll enjoy too…
2: Drink
Elderflower gin
This is just gin and elderflower, and as much as it is so simple as to barely deserve the term ‘recipe’, the specificity of the steps is what delivers perfection. Perfect, and quick, fro the lst elderflower, perhaps in the shadiest spots, where you live.
The elderflower must be alight with its fragrance; a sunny or barometrically intense day is vital.
Pour a litre of gin into a shallow dish; this allows a wide area for the flowers to sit in.
Don’t snip the flowers from the stems as the cuts leak bitterness into the gin.
Allow 90-120 minutes, tasting at 80 minutes and removing the flowerheads as soon as the flavour has passed nicely into the gin. You are after the critical point at which the essence of the flowers has fallen into the gin, before any bitterness from the stems soaks out.
Lift the flowerheads out, place a colander underneath and allow them to drip into the dish. Funnel into a bottle and wait for a sunny evening to enjoy with tonic or in the martini below.
3: Ears
I had a long drive the other day and found myself listening to a few favourite film soundtracks. I do love a soundtrack. They transport to the land of the film in a way I like very much. As well as the lovelier jazz and classical soundtracks, growing up at a certain time has left me with a weakness for the big Bond songs. Apologies.
I put a few of my favourites on a playlist, for your pleasure. They don’t include songs recorded for something else that were subsequently used in a film; just originals, so don’t expect a Born Slippy or a You Never Can Tell, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s one or two (hello In Dreams) that ‘inadvertently’ snuck in.
I hope you enjoy it.
4: Words
Food books
It’s been an excellent month or so for food books. These 5 are all really special, and in different ways.
Many of you will know Giulia Scarpaleggia’s excellent substack, and her new book Vegetables The Italian Way, is a pleasure of a read as well as being a great book for the kitchen.
Everything Honey & Co do is alright by me: their latest is characteristically full of flavour, with too many recipes you want to make immediately, plus the usual fabulous writing. The subtitle - Easy food for your everyday pleasure - is exactly what you expect, and get, from them. See below, if you fancy joining us later in June to chat with the Honeys Live here on Substack.
Georgina Hayden’s cookbooks are among the most used in this house - she always delivers with interesting combinations, big flavours and much pleasure on the plate. Her latest, Medesque, is full of deliciousness with Mediterranean roots, and is everything you might hope for from a Georgina book.
I love Özlem Warren’s books, and her latest - full of stories and recipes from Istanbul - is just wonderful. If you aren’t familiar with her, take the leap on Istanbul, and if you are you’ll need know convincing.
Chetna Makan has created a series of really useful, approachable Indian cookbooks, and 5 Ingredient Indian is everything you’d want a simple recipe book with big flavours to be. Her hugely successful Youtube channel is a great resource to turn to too.
I had the pleasure of meeting Emma Bunning from Muddy Stilettos at Chelsea Flower Show, and she twisted my arm for three cocktail recipes for the summer. Click below and you can enjoy them too - and do sign up to the newsletter while you’re at it.
I spent an hour in the company of the excellent Lev Parikian, whose Six Things substack is one of my favourites. He asked me to think of six things I was attached to in some way - joyful, fascinating, amusing etc - and I had the best time chatting with him. Click below to listen: I hope you enjoy it.
4: Lives
Most months I hosted two Live conversations - one with someone connected to the writing process (a publisher, editor etc), and one with a writer. This month’s were huge fun, and I hope you find them useful and a pleasure.
A Writing Process ‘Live’ with Harriet Webster, Editor
Harriet is a freelance project manager and editor specialising in food and lifestyle. She was a commissioning editor, project manager and editor (and more) at Quadrille Publishing for 7 years, before going freelance.
We talked all things to do with getting a book proposal right to appeal to editors, the relationship between editor and author, what an editor does that’s beyond helping you whittle your words into their best form, and much more.
I hope you enjoy it.
Author Live with Rachel Khoo
Rachel Khoo is a food writer, broadcaster, and the person who once ran a supper club for two from the world’s smallest restaurant (her Paris flat, population: Rachel).
Her 2012 book, The Little Paris Kitchen, was hugely successful, turned into a BBC series that aired around the world, since which she’s written six more books, hosted cooking shows on the BBC, Food Network and Netflix.
Her memoir, The Smallest Restaurant in Paris, tells the story of how all of that actually began. It’s a fabulous read, and I caught up with Rachel about how it all happened, how she found writing in a different genre, and her decision to self-publish the book here in the UK.
If you want to buy Rachel’s book, this is the best link to use as it recognises where you are and sends you to the right place.
And if you get a chance, do join Rachel on her book tour.
6: Garden
Scented geraniums
Scented geraniums - scented pelargoniums to the real gardeners - would be worth growing for the perfume they leave on your fingers alone, but, like bay, the fragrance can be captured and enjoyed. Dairy, alcohol and sugar syrup are perhaps the best carriers of their flavour: they are available most popularly as rose scented, but orange, lemon and many more will bring pleasure.
As well as buying them individually, you can get them in a collection of three to play with.
Click here for more info and to buy
And if you’d like to hear more about new stock and offers from my nursery, please click here.
Don’t forget, if you are a paid subscriber] in the UK you get 25% off all plants and seeds1.
7: The Abundance Writing Course
If you are an aspiring writer, or perhaps someone who has been published but a little stuck, or maybe you are wondering how to make the most of what Substack has to offer, I can help2.
Every month, I host online events that take various forms.
There’s more about the overall writing ‘course’ here.
Together, these events can make a real difference to your development.
Author Lives and Writing Process Lives are also available to watch later. Click here to see what’s coming up and watch previous conversations.
June’s dates for your diary
Author ‘Live’ - Honey & Co
June’s Author Live is with one or both Itamar Srulovic and Sarit Packer, as talented, generous and wonderful as anyone you could meet.
Whatever time of day or night, I gravitate to their food, the places the serve it, and their warm hospitality. Their books are the best of pleasures: beautiful writing and recipes that are so very good.
They have a new place just opened, and a book just published. Join us on Tuesday 30 June to chat (and ask questions!) about all things Honey&Co. Here’s the link: an email will also be sent just as we go live on the day, as well as an alert on the app.
The Abundance Writing Group
Every month, I hold a gathering for writers - a dedicated space to direct creativity at a single focus. Next month’s is on Tuesday 30 June, 6pm UK time. That gathering with give everyone opportunity to discuss how the prompt that I set a week before worked for them, what they wrote, and anything that came up. There will also be chance for some to read their work - a challenge for most, but an important one. Click below for more info and to book on.
8: Drink
Elderflower martini
My old friend Valentine Warner asserts that a good martini should be an elegant brick thrown through the window of your day. Bravo. Drink one where you want to relax; drink two where you want to sleep.
80ml elderflower gin
20ml dry white vermouth2
Pour the gin and vermouth into a cocktail shaker and add a handful of ice. Shake for 30 seconds. Pour into a chilled glass and enjoy it somewhere you can hear birds singing.
9: Something excellent…
Patricia Niven is a wonderful photographer - if you have a Honey & Co book, she has been in your virtual company. Later this month, she’s running a food photography workshop for those who use their phone to tell some of their story. Most of us can take an ok pic with our phone but this is the best and easiest of upgrades to that - proper professional development - in the company of someone who knows what they’re about.
Click below for more info and to book.
9: Thank Heavens For…Waterloo Bridge
Most often I arrive into London at Waterloo station and walk across the bridge that links the south with the north. I always take the upstream side of the road, and almost always look west for most of the time I cross. Of course, the other direction, toward St Pauls, with so many newer tallnesses in with the old is quite something too, but westwards has my heart.
I used to cycle to work along the Southbank, at just te point when the London Eye was being constructed - built as it was horizontal, before being lifted unto the perpendicular. It was Waterloo Bridge I used to cross the river, heading on up through Covent Garden towards the north of the centre.
Whenever I cross the bridge, I think of Paul McCartney - he once asked my the time on the bridge, me looking straight at my watch rather than his face until he said thank you - and Georgi Markov.
The bridge is the second incarnation, after the first began to fail: this one, with some optimism of it staying standing given the time, opened in 1942, and every time I cross it I stop and stare at just how beautiful London can be.
More soon…in the meantime, happy June to you
Mark
This Dry English Vermouth, from Asterley Brothers, is just perfect
As I was reading your elderberry gin recipe, I was reminded of my first encounter with something elderberryesque when I first landed in Europe. I don’t know why, but elderberries were never a thing in America...or at least my corner of America. Anyway...back to Europe. In the first restaurant I worked in, we would dip elderberry flowers briefly in gin, then properly in a beer batter before getting deep-fried. The elderberry-gin eventually turned into jelly pieces that would be placed on the plate. Thanks for guiding me back to that memory—it’s been awhile.
Speaking of Bond songs...I am very much looking forward to seeing Garbage perform live in a few weeks. Sometimes the world is not enough...
The Harriot Webster podcast was an absolute delight—thanks for that!
Happy June to you, as well...
I take the upstream side too but tend to look downstream... But going back, it's usually head down and speed walking to make my train