A HOME COMPANION
My year of living like my grandmother
Wendyl Nissen
Allen & Unwin - NZ$29.99

When Wendyl Nissen gave up her stressful corporate career to work from home she quickly discovered the joys of returning to a more old-fashioned style of living. Instead of rushing around the supermarket after work, she found herself with her own hens and a productive organic garden. Before long she had thrown out her harsh household cleaning products, replacing them with time-honoured (and cheaper) alternatives, such as baking soda and vinegar. Then she turned her eye to her bathroom cabinet, experimenting with natural beauty and health recipes. Eventually Wendyl’s house and garden, her dog and cats and even her caravan had all been transformed by her new-found green touch.

A Home Companion delightfully details a year in Wendyl’s journey towards living a life more like her grandmother’s. Wendyl describes each domestic discovery as she undertakes experiments, delighting when she has success, and making us laugh when it all goes wrong.

As well as being a great and engaging read, the book features Wendyl’s most popular and successful cleaning recipes, as well as instructions on how to easily make your own baby wipes, play dough, pizza bread, natural bug spray, doggy flea treats and even your own sunscreen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wendyl Nissen is a veteran journalist and straight-talking broadcaster. Once an eager young newspaper journalist, she went on to become an influential editor, heading a string of high-profile women's magazines including Woman's Day, NZ Woman's Weekly, Cleo and Family Circle. She has also worked as a television producer, and has published two books, Bitch & Famous and Domestic Goddess on a Budget. Wendyl now writes columns for NZ Woman’s Weekly, Herald on Sunday and NZ Gardener and writes ‘Wendyl Wants to Know’ in the Weekend Herald, where she scrutinises the ingredients in processed food. She is also a regular commentator on Newstalk ZB. Wendyl lives in Grey Lynn with her husband, Paul Little, though she escapes as often as she can to her 1968 caravan at the beach.

For more information on Wendyl’s Green Goddess brand, visit http://www.wendylsgreengoddess.co.nz/

This is the final paragraph of Wendyl's charming introduction:

My hope is that this book will end up on the bookshelf in your kitchen, just like the old scrapbook Nana used to have filled with recipes, tips and hints given to her by friends or clipped out of a newspaper or magazine. And just like Nana’s scrapbook I hope it becomes stained with use, a chocolate icing stain here, a smudge of oil there and a dusting of baking soda stuck in the spine. I hope you use it well and use it often and add to it with your own notes, clippings and recipes. And when you get old and become a nana yourself, I hope that you pass it on to someone you love so that they too, can live a healthy, chemical-free existence.

I love her wish in that paragraph - My hope is that this book will end up on the bookshelf in your kitchen, just like the old scrapbook Nana used to have filled with recipes, tips and hints given to her by friends or clipped out of a newspaper or magazine.
What a shame then that the book could not have been published in hardcover with a nice old fashioned journal feel to it but our NZ market is just too small to justify that sort of project I guess. That doesn't distract however from a book that is both practical and entertaining, a book I found  pleasing and sometimes funny and heartwarming.
Footnote:
The NZ Woman's Weekly High Tea with Wendyl Nissen Auckland event still has a few tickets left (not many!), though the Wellington event has sold out. Tickets are $65, and everyone attending gets a deluxe goody bag, which includes a signed copy of the book, worth over $90.

http://www.nzmagazines.com/tickets/high-tea-with-wendyl-nissen/