Blindingly British, personal reflections on the national sweets and biscuits. ( )

It doesn't state anywhere in my copy exactly where these passages were taken from, but I would assume they are from his column in the Observer. I don't know how the sequence was decided upon, but I felt this was a slight flaw in the book - sometimes similar themes were grouped together, but others were mixed about which could sometimes make you wonder if you hadn't already read that passage before.

But besides that, this book was really quite charming. I love how here is a food writer, who fully embraces some of the more naff aspects of British food like mass produced biscuits as well as the higher brow things like organic farmers markets. I'm of a different generation to him, but there were a lot of foods he mentioned that I could join in on the nostalgia of (I actually went & bought some Murray Mints after reading about them!). As someone who cooks more out of necessity than passion, & who's talent is limited at best, I also felt I learned a bit from this book too.

The nature of the book being a patchwork of (I assume) previously published passages does make it a bit jumpy, & I mainly preferred the longer passages where he really got into his stride on a topic, but as a light read before bed I felt this was a fairly ok book. But I'll be honest - it wont be a permanent resident on my bookshelf that I'll re-read. ( )

Having enjoyed Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater, I thought this would be a great read.

I wish I hadn't bothered with it now! Whilst some bits were mildly enjoyable, I ended up skim reading a lot of it. It had great premise, with chapters named after the food from the 60s, 70s and 80s, e.g 'Jacob's Club', 'Fry's Five Centres', 'The Ritual of the KitKat' and 'Bisto' etc I thought it would be a walk though my childhood.

However, then I got to the chapter "washing up" and couldn't believe the sexist nonsense he was spewing. I mean, the following statement might have been true in the 1950s but now...?!

"An announcement that 'having a machine is not the same as when you do it yourself' is perhaps the last, desperate cry of the woman worried her position might be in jeopardy. The idea that she could be replaced by a machine is a thread altogether too real. Losing her husband to another woman would be one thing, but to a machine that did the dishes would be a humiliation altogether too much to bear."

With his slagging off of other celebrity chefs and his sweeping generalisation that British stews are "the colour of washing-up water and smell of old people" (his might be, mine aren't) I decided he was so far up his own backside that I've gone right off him.

What a disappointment. ( )

I’ve been a fan of Nigel Slater for a long time. His writing, the humor, his recipes and gardening tips….I’ll read anything he writes. This collection of essays in Eating for England is top notch. As you read his very descriptive writing you can mentally see exactly what he’s talking about. This particular book was published in England and isn’t an American edition. The quality of the actual book is fantastic. The paper is weightier, there is a silk ribbon attached into the spine to mark your pages and the jacket is heavy and smooth. It’s a gorgeous book.

If you are an Anglophile you’ll love this book for the description of everyday life; the shopping, getting tea ready, interactions in the shops, offices and home. I like this book even more than I did his autobiographical account in Toast.

This one will always have a place on my overcrowded boom shelf. ( )

I loved this book! The short essay format was much to my liking. I enjoyed learning about many foods of England that I did not know about. Humor added a light and friendly touch to this tome. ( )