A completely fabulous, highly readable (though not gossipy in the slightest) treatise on edibles in Britain from cavemen to the Victorians. The book is mostly made of the histories of various dishes and ingredients, and traces the slow evolution of, say, rice pudding. Intermingled are recipes like: "For to make spinee. Take the flowers of the hawthorn, clean gathered, and bray them all to dust, and temper them with almond milk, and allay it with amidon, and with eggs will thick, and boil it. And mess it forth; and flowers and leaves laid above on." WHAT? I love this stuff. ( )

This is an excellent overview of the social and economic history of food and cooking in Britain. It deals with each major food group (e.g. Milk, cheese and butter) in chronological order, looking at four broad time periods (Prehistoric, Roman, Early Medieval, Later Medieval, Early Modern). This highly structured approach provides an easily digestible means of dealing with what is a very large and diverse subject. For the casual reader it is given a clear narrative, with anecdote and context enough to ensure that it remains readable. For the more scholarly reader, there are frequent references to primary and other sources, the author has extensively researched her subject. This is complemented by a seven page bibliography and 25(!) pages of footnotes – enough to take the serious reader on the much further study. For anyone with a general interest in food and eating in British history, this makes a terrific general reference, despite its age (it was originally published in 1973. ( )