English Food: A Social History of England Told Through the Food on Its Tables
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English Food: A Social History of England Told Through the Food on Its Tables
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In later centuries, constant attempts to defeat heresy brought to light a number of figures who were difficult to reconcile with Christianity. Such figures were typically created without reference to witchcraft at all, but led to the creation of the figure of the heretic witch. I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven. Lakeland, the experts in cooking, baking, cleaning and laundry was founded over 50 years ago in the heart of the Lake District and from humble beginnings, this family-owned business is now multi-national as well as multi-channel. Neil will be speaking at the Ludlow Food Festival on Sunday 10 September at 2.30pm, talking all things Elizabeth Raffald: https://www.ludlowfoodfestival.co.uk/
Diane’s book English Food: a People’s History available here: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/english-food-a-peoples-history-diane-purkiss?variant=39825973411918In 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. For the Love of the Land II: A Cook Book to Celebrate the British Farming Community and their Food by Jenny Jefferies I have a story that explains this, although it’s not from the book. I had an acquaintance, who used to be senior in the Food Commission. She taught an adult cookery class in England, and at the end of the course, she said to the women: ‘To celebrate we will make a cake next week, so everyone remember to bring in a tin.’ Nothing more than that. The next week, they all came in with their idea of a tin. One brought a beer can, another brought a washed-out tin of sardines. They didn’t really know what a cake tin was, nor did they have the money to go and buy one. This was only in the 1990s.
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.This book was originally called "The English Civil War: A People's History," and that would have given me a much more clear idea of the perspective of this author and also a great deal less fondness about it given the low quality of people's history thanks to their Maoist perspectives to begin with. To be sure, this book has some of that, but the author manages to strike that ambivalent tone where she shows herself in favor of Christmas and generally favorable to authoritarian government as a whole on the one hand while also showing a certain fondness for Levelers and Diggers and female pamphleteers and Cornish and Welsh peasants seeking a better life and clubmen looking for peace between the warring sides. This book was written by someone who could not keep on point but who was as easily distracted as a pariah dog by the sight of a squirrel. She has obviously done a lot of reading of primary and secondary source material, much of which is detailed in this book, but at the same time this book was not nearly as enjoyable to read as it should have been given its subject material. And I uncovered quite an interesting riff, I guess, in English Civil War history, which was a preoccupation with food, and with writing cookbooks, and with expressing political views through cookbooks. That, for me, intersected with the fact that a lot of witchcraft accusations are actually caused by food shortages, in quite a straightforward way. One of the things that they reportedly do, that upsets their neighbours, is spoil food production—like, you’re making butter, the witch comes into the room, and—by some kind of undefined negativity—makes your butter fail to set. Then you’ve wasted the expensive primary ingredient, cream, which you can’t just go down to the shop and replace. The Oxford festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.
- Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
- EAN: 764486781913
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