“I read on, tasting each dish upon my tongue…”
The Book Fairies have been sharing new paperback copies of The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs! Some of the fairies even visited Tonbridge, the home of Eliza Acton, one of the real life main characters in the book.
About the book:
England 1835. Eliza Acton is a poet who dreams of seeing her words in print. But when she takes her new manuscript to a publisher, she’s told that ‘poetry is not the business of a lady’. Instead, they want her to write a cookery book. That’s what readers really want from women. England is awash with exciting new ingredients, from spices to exotic fruits. But no one knows how to use them.
Eliza leaves the offices appalled. But when her father is forced to flee the country for bankruptcy, she has no choice but to consider the proposal. Never having cooked before, she is determined to learn and to discover, if she can, the poetry in recipe writing. To assist her, she hires seventeen-year-old Ann Kirby, the impoverished daughter of a war-crippled father and a mother with dementia.
Over the course of ten years, Eliza and Ann developed an unusual friendship – one that crossed social classes and divides – and, together, they broke the mould of traditional cookbooks and changed the course of cookery writing forever.
“Between 1835 and 1845 Eliza and Ann lived in Tonbridge, Kent, and worked on a cookery book that has become known as the greatest British cookbook of all time…”
Not lucky enough to find a copy?
Do not worry! This book is available in all good bookshops from Thursday 2nd March. If you cannot get to a bookshop but still want to support them, head to Bookshop.org to order The Language of Food.
Would you like to be a book fairy?
If this activity has made YOU want to be a book fairy, then you can absolutely join in! Just grab your first set of stickers to get started.
