Winter's the perfect time for eating pie, reading, and bingeing TV shows

So far this week I've eaten Ottolenghi's curried cauliflower cheese filo pie; a serve of an old family favourite via taste.com.au, a country chicken pie which I amended to use up the rest of the filo and make it just for one; a little lamb and mint pie I picked up from Gum Tree Pies at the Capital Region Farmers Market; and a bake-at-home chicken, leek and riesling share pie from Three Mills Bakery; both of which have the added bonus of being able to cook from frozen.

You could say the week has almost been pie-fection.

I just love winter. Not only for the comforting changes that appear on the dining table, but for so many more things.

And is there any better place to be in winter than our nation's capital?

You wake up on a foggy morning, some people will whinge about the damp, grey start. But those of us who know, know once the fog lifts we're in for a cracker of a day.

I love a bright blue winter's day. Even if there's a bit of wind chill. Nothing that a good coat, a beanie and a pair of gloves won't fix.

I also love a rainy day. It gives me an excuse to do a couple of these things.

Features editor and fellow book nerd Sally Pryor and I have been fan-girling over Miranda July's latest All Fours (Allen and Unwin, Canongate, $32.99). It's about a woman, of a certain age, up-ending her life. "Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectations while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman," reads the blurb. It's the best bloody thing I've read in ages. And I'm only a few chapters in. Sal told me this week, "I can't stop thinking about it and am actually in mourning that it's finished." I'd better not rush it.

Have you ever felt that way about a book? I remember bursting into tears when I finished The Bees, by Laline Paull (Fourth Estate, $22,99, 2014). I thought I'd never read something so brilliant again. Maybe All Fours will beat it.

I'm also reading and marking recipes in Le Sud: Recipes from Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, by Rebekah Peppler (Chronicle Books, $55). Okay, it probably goes against the very idea of loving winter, but I missed the south of France on a recent trip and am keen to get back there. Yes, it probably does all come down to spending some time in the homeland of rosé, where I can whip up some anchovy choux as a snack, or roast a whole fish with a bit of pistou, and finish with a plum clafoutis. This gorgeous book is also full of stories that will transport you to warmer climes, wearing next to nothing at the beach and healing by the sea. Which sounds just fine to me.

As much as I've been enjoying watching the new series of Bridgerton, I like my historical dramas with a little more edge.

I stumbled across the series Anne Boleyn on SBS, and it's a neat turn on the tale we all know. Black actress Jodie Turner-Smith is cast as Anne, the second wife of Henry VIII, mother of Elizabeth I, who would eventually take the throne and rule for 44 years. More psychological thriller than historically accurate period drama, the show opens when Anne has just five months to live.

It's interesting comparing the "colour-blind casting" (as it's called) of both this series and Bridgerton.

Mark Stanley, the white actor who plays Henry VIII, said in a recent interview that it "was all about this being the right person for the job, rather than what we as a society might perceive as the 'right look' for the job. Anne Boleyn was beautiful, witty, vibrant, intelligent and Jodie is all of those things".

Another review said the casting was "a clever way of illustrating Anne's outsider status at court in the final months of her life".

It's an interesting take. So too is the casting in Bridgerton of different body types. Not all ladies in court are slim and attractive. Some are, to be sure, Florence Hunt as Hyacinth Bridgerton might be the most angelic woman ever to grace a screen.

I just watch it and wonder if there'd be such a fuss about Colin and Penelope getting together if Penelope was being played by some vapid slim thing, rather than the luscious Nicola Coughlan. We can be as politically correct as we need to be, but what other reason is there for Pen to be touted as a "spinster"? She's voluptuous, smart, funny and incredibly sexy. Just like me.