Happiness is a Red Teapot

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       March 20, 2018

 

Author  Anouska Jones

Distributor:      Exile Publishing
ISBN:                 9781925335651
Publisher:         Exile Publishing
Release Date:   March 2018  

   Website:   https://exislepublishing.com

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Happiness certainly can be a red teapot, as hundreds of thousands, indeed possibly billions and billions of people will agree.  Tea and its container the teapot have offered comfort and enjoyment for centuries appealing to everyone who enjoys a great brew. During feast or famine, high times and low, the humble teapot has been bought forth to offer warmth, comfort and refreshment to all. It also doubles as a status symbol of wealth or culture being created in many shapes and forms.

The Victorians had a thing about silver and so created some magnificent works of art to serve the humble libation.  The Chinese, whom, let us never forget, refined the art of tea drinking, as did the Japanese, to a form of exquisite cultural significance, based within a ceremony performed each time tea was taken. The British took it to the wider population making it the national drink, with often the first word spoken when entering a café, ‘wanna cuppa, Guv’, and the Indian nations simple drank it whenever possible.

In Happiness is a Little Red Teapot, Anouska Jones has captured words of wisdom, along with some glorious photographs, from an obviously supremely, totally refined selection of the worlds famous personages, who have all succumbed to the delicious sensation of enjoying a cup of well brewed tea, from their favourite teapot. Of course all the other people who enjoy tea, and also utter meaningful one liners, are quoted as Unknown, as they speak for tea drinkers of the world.

Mick Jagger, of Rolling Stones fame says ‘I got nasty habits; I take tea at three’, whereas the beautiful Audrey Hepburn once a said in a reflective moment, ‘when you have nobody you can make a cup of tea for, when nobody needs you, that’s when I think life is over.’  Whereas Honore de Balzac captured the moment perfectly with the wonderful one liner, ‘great love affairs start with Champagne and end with a tisane.’

Noel Coward suggested ‘Wouldn’t it be dreadful to live in a country where they didn’t have tea’, because as an Unknown person stated, ‘When life gets tough, the tough grab the kettle’.

So while you are enjoying your freshly brewed cuppa, from your favourite teapot, red hopefully, thumbing through this delightfully presented and illustrated book, take a moment to reflect on the words of another Unknown once again, ‘Life is like a cup of tea; it is all in how you make it.’

Amazing what can be discovered during a quiet visit with a little red teapot!