Lara has nothing around her that affirms her sense of blackness, as her father’s Yoruba culture wasn’t passed down to her. “That’s something that I went through and felt I wanted to write about,” explains Bernadine And so did a whole generation of black men Pass the salt, sister, the food smells good.. The title of Pamela Norris’s book is something of a tease, for we are all familiar with the story of Eve. Created by God from Adam’s rib to provide him with a companion, she was foolish or weak enough to be tempted by the serpent, with dreadful consequences for humanity. Everything in the garden was rosy, in other words, until a woman came along and spoiled it. What else is there to say?

A great deal, according to Norris, who spends the first half of her narrative explaining the many different versions of Eve which exist in the Bible and Jewish texts, as well as what early theologians had to say about her and her human descendants. Not much of it was good, as most readers would doubtless predict, although anyone who is unacquainted with the writings of the early Church Fathers may be surprised by the vehemence and venom of their pronouncements on women.
St John Chrysostom, for example, writing in the fourth century AD, warned the Christian congregation at Antioch that woman was “a whited sepulchre”, full of uncleanness.

Getting into his stride, he demanded: “What else is a woman but a foe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil nature, painted with fair colours?”Not a feminist, then, John “Golden Mouth”, to give him his wholly unironic English appellation. As Norris points out, his series of paradoxical put- downs echoes that of a much earlier Greek author, Hesiod, when he came to record a non-Christian creation myth towards the end of the eighth century BC. For Hesiod, all our troubles began with Pandora, the “beautiful evil” – kalon kakon in Greek – who opened a jar and let out “grim cares” to afflict mankind. Later commentators explicitly linked the two inquisitive and disobedient women, as we can see from a 16th-century painting of a female nude by the French artist Jean Cousin. Suspended above her head is a painted tablet which bears the simple inscription, “EVA PRIMA PANDORA”.As well as making connections between Eve and figures from pagan and Jewish myth, Norris spends some time in this section of the book examining ancient law and its effect on women’s lives. The connection with Eve is not always apparent, and while there is interesting material about the lifestyle of women in the period, Norris’s style veers unevenly between chatty and didactic. The second half of the book is devoted to analyses of what she calls “fantasies of Eve”, such as the way in which her wickedness was supposedly redeemed by the problematic cult of the Virgin Mary.

“Sadly for women in a culture where marriage was the norm, unbroached virginity was fundamental to Mary’s goodness,” writes Norris, pointing out that this created a standard of female conduct which most real women were bound to fail.The opposition between good and evil characterised by Mary and Eve is represented, according to Norris, in a multitude of texts which she goes on to discuss, from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh to Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”. She also suggests that contemporary women writers like the novelist Angela Carter have made spirited attempts to reclaim Eve, arguing that “Eve’s story still has something to offer women”. And it is here that the doubts raised earlier in the text coalesce, exposing the timidity and undue optimism which inform Norris’s enterprise.Eve, Pandora, all those seductive women from myth who are supposed to have led mankind astray, are the products of male misogyny. He used to call me Boy Gorge, and sing, “Do You Really Want To Eat Me?” He’s bitchy, but he’s loyal He had a flat in St John’s Wood which he wasn’t living in I lived there for the first two years of Culture Club So that flat became besieged Philip used to come round and scream at all the fans. The first gig that Culture Club did at Heaven, he walked around saying, “I can’t bear other people being adored.” At least he’s honest. He would make a point of walking past me and sticking his nose in the air and making sure no one talked to me They all talked to me anyway They just didn’t talk to me in front of him. I sent him a voodoo doll.I don’t listen to Philip’s opinions about my music I always find them a bit loopy.

When he does something, he does it properly.We had a really bad falling-out for about a year when I was 19 It was about a straight guy I used to get off with Philip hated him because he wasn’t honest Because I was madly in love I fell out with Philip I always used to see him everywhere. I just laugh at him because once something gets into Philip’s mind that’s it.He has an incredible knowledge of fashion history. I think it’s a shame that he doesn’t put it to better use – in some ways he’s a wasted genius. When he did the party for my book launch he went absolutely over the top and created this mad psychotic school environment and he wouldn’t let anybody in unless they turned up in costume I think it’s good that Philip is like that. His banter and his drag were like an armour, which I think we have in common.