English Food: A Social History of England Told Through the Food on Its Tables: A People’s History Hardcover – 10 Nov. 2022

I enjoyed the well researched and well written text. There were even recipes from past times.Some sections were a touch detailed and dry but overall, it was a readable and thoroughly enjoyable account of how our nation's diet and favourite foods came to dominate Britain's tables.I recommend it

It's taken me nearly 2 years to read this book. Not because it was boring, quite the reverse: just about every page has some unexpected insight or information or observation or startling historical fact, so much so that I found it hard to take in except a few pages at a time. Recently-read surprises include eggs being seasonal until the 20c, and chickens being omnivorous - who knew? Over and over again I found myself saying "How did I not know that?"! Purkiss, a very entertaining writer, is also amusingly blistering about some sacred cows, notably Elizabeth David, and is clear about the damage social pretension has done to food cultures. Wonderful, and most highly recommended.

This is a great attempt at capturing the evolution and history of food, not necessarily only English, from a social perspective. However, the focus is largely medieval to present, and there is a lot of reliance on few sources so the scope was somewhat narrow for my taste. Pun intended. It felt stronger on social history than food history or human nutrition from an academic perspective. I also found the style a bit convoluted. That all said, it was fascinating, painted some wonderful pictures of how people lived and ate, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in knowing about what and why you eat the way you do.

Brilliant. So much fascinating historical detail. I found all the social history interesting and the written style engaging.

Diana Purkiss has written one of the best book about food that I’ve ever read. I received the hardcover version as a Christmas present and I’ve been totally absorbed. Her approach is unique and packed with information.We tend to think only about food as a particular item; bread as a slice of toast or a roll, breakfast is…? In the first chapter she considers breakfast. What constitutes breakfast and how has it developed? For some it’s a coffee on the hoof, for others it’s a full fry up with numerous ingredients. But when and where did the so called traditional full English arise. Probably in Scotland!This is a delightful romp through social history and it challenges the reader to think further about the background to food. The baker who works through the night and part of a day, pre industrial scale baking, to put bread on the table daily. They worked long hard hours and died young after a lifetime inhaling flour dust. Or the maid, up before dawn to light fires in the home, even into the 20 th century. We take so much for granted and this provides a refreshing insight into what’s required to get daily food to the table.The research appears meticulous. Extensive notes reference source material and provide inspirational reading if you’re keen to know more. I absolutely love this book. It’s engaging, authoritative and truly fascinating. Ver6 highl6 recommended.

The prose is rambling and full of inaccuracies ( e.g. pelican is not the same as corned (salted) beef..The author has clearly just assembled as much material as she found in the library and rehashed it without any evidence of critical thought or logic.I regret the time and money spent coming to that conc!usion