Girdles and Other Harnesses I Have Known

Nora D.S. Robins is liaison librarian in the University of Calgary
Library.

This collection of poems, essays, memoirs, fiction, and recipes is a joy
to read. Harris sums up her life as follows: “Young woman marries
professor, they have a happy marriage, buy a ranch, have six children,
go into politics, live together until he dies.” Her husband was Hu
Harries, University of Alberta economics professor, Liberal MP,
energetic businessman, and rancher (five ranches in all). Life was never
dull.

Recipes are incorporated into a number of the essays and memoirs.
Clearly, the kitchen was the centre of the home, and Harries was a happy
cook. Her recipes are mouth-watering, particularly the ones for apricot
chutney and pickled cherries with gin and juniper. Harries is a fine
writer, capturing our attention with her often funny and occasionally
sad stories and poems. One finishes her book with a sharp appetite for
her next publication.