Overview

‘An absolute gem’ Sunday Times‘A mouthwatering history’ The Guardian In this delicious history of Britain’s food traditions, Diane Purkiss invites readers on a unique journey through the centuries, exploring the development of recipes and rituals for mealtimes such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, to show how food has been both a reflection of and inspiration for social continuity and change. Purkiss uses the story of food as a revelatory device to chart changing views on class, gender, and tradition through the ages. Sprinkled throughout with glorious details of historical quirks – trial by ordeal of bread, a fondness for ‘small beer’ and a war-time ice-cream substitute called ‘hokey pokey’ made from parsnips – this book is both an education and an entertainment. English Food explores the development of the coffee trade and the birth of London’s coffee houses, where views were exchanged on politics, art, and literature. Purkiss introduces the first breeders of British beef and reveals how cattle triggered the terrible Glencoe Massacre. We are taken for tea, to the icehouse, the pantry, and the beehive. We learn that toast is as English as the chalk cliffs. We bite into chicken, plainly poached or exotically spiced. We join bacon curers and fishermen at work. We follow the scent of apples into ancient orchards. A rich and indulgent history, English Food will change the way you view your food and understand your past. The table is set, have a seat, and tuck in.

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9780007255566

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Reviews

Praise for English Food : 'An absolute gem... English Food is a fabulous read. I devoured it with gusto... My review copy will find a permanent place on my bookshelves... a richly entertaining and enlightening social history of England... Superb' Sunday Times, Christopher Hart 'Every page brings astonishing revelation... acerbic, witty, opinionated and devoid of pomposity... This book is about food, but it's more importantly about how food defines us' The Times, Gerald DeGroot 'A mouthwatering history... A sumptuous survey of English cuisine leaves no morsel untasted... liberally seasoned throughout with literary references, from Anglo-Saxon poetry to Michael Ondaatje... fascinating... There's an awful lot of good stuff to get your teeth into here' The Guardian, Felicity Cloake 'What a delectable banquet of a book this is... This magnificently readable and engaging book (which is also very generously illustrated) sets the record straight and should whet appetites for the attentive, seasonal cooking and gamier flavours of the past' Literary Review '[A] fantastic book' Evening Standard

Praise for 'The English Civil War': 'Rich, vivid and passionate!a moving, lyrical and principled piece of writing!Purkiss has a gift for evocation..the battles of Edgehill and Newbury are thrillingly staged.' The Independent 'Diane Purkiss's study of the English civil war is a rich one. For it is here!that you begin to get close to what it would have been like to live through the nine momentous years from 1640 to 1649!it would be hard to imagine anything more irresistible than this rich layer cake of a book, crammed with the stories and the voices that make history human.' The Guardian 'Purkiss has an eye for the narrative vignette that can illuminate the age.' Sunday Times 'Her vivid descriptions of the key battles at Marston Moor and Naseby are shocking and terrifying in their graphic detail of the suffering inflicted by canon, musket and pike! The English Civil War is a substantial book, elegantly written, meticulous in its detail and scrupulous in the sympathetic attention it pays to the voices it records.' Literary Review 'Light in touch, though grounded in an enormous wealth of documentary material this people's history shows how England's men and women coped with quite extraordinary times.' The Scotsman

Praise for The English Civil War: 'Rich, vivid and passionate...a moving, lyrical and principled piece of writing...Purkiss has a gift for evocation..the battles of Edgehill and Newbury are thrillingly staged' Independent 'Diane Purkiss's study of the English civil war is a rich one. For it is here...that you begin to get close to what it would have been like to live through the nine momentous years from 1640 to 1649...it would be hard to imagine anything more irresistible than this rich layer cake of a book, crammed with the stories and the voices that make history human' Guardian 'Purkiss has an eye for the narrative vignette that can illuminate the age' Sunday Times 'Her vivid descriptions of the key battles at Marston Moor and Naseby are shocking and terrifying in their graphic detail of the suffering inflicted by canon, musket and pike... The English Civil War is a substantial book, elegantly written, meticulous in its detail and scrupulous in the sympathetic attention it pays to the voices it records' Literary Review 'Light in touch, though grounded in an enormous wealth of documentary material this people's history shows how England's men and women coped with quite extraordinary times' Scotsman

Praise for 'The English Civil War': 'Rich, vivid and passionate...a moving, lyrical and principled piece of writing...Purkiss has a gift for evocation..the battles of Edgehill and Newbury are thrillingly staged.' The Independent 'Diane Purkiss's study of the English civil war is a rich one. For it is here...that you begin to get close to what it would have been like to live through the nine momentous years from 1640 to 1649...it would be hard to imagine anything more irresistible than this rich layer cake of a book, crammed with the stories and the voices that make history human.' The Guardian 'Purkiss has an eye for the narrative vignette that can illuminate the age.' Sunday Times 'Her vivid descriptions of the key battles at Marston Moor and Naseby are shocking and terrifying in their graphic detail of the suffering inflicted by canon, musket and pike... The English Civil War is a substantial book, elegantly written, meticulous in its detail and scrupulous in the sympathetic attention it pays to the voices it records.' Literary Review 'Light in touch, though grounded in an enormous wealth of documentary material this people's history shows how England's men and women coped with quite extraordinary times.' The Scotsman

Author Information

Diane Purkiss is fellow and tutor at Keble College, Oxford. She was formerly Professor of English at Exeter University. She is the author of the highly acclaimed The Witch in History and Troublesome Things: A History of Fairies and Fairy Stories. She is currently working on a history of British food to be published in 2009.

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