FROM THE BOOK JACKET:
England, 1932, and the country is in the grip of the Great Depression. To lift the spirits of the nation, Stella Douglas is tasked with writing a history of food in England. It's to be quintessentially English and will remind English housewives of the old ways, and English men of the glory of their country. The only problem ismuch of English food is really from, well, elsewhere...
So, Stella sets about unearthing recipes from all corners of the country, in the hope of finding a hidden culinary gem. But what she discovers is rissoles, gravy, stewed prunes and lots of oatcakes. Longing for something more thrilling, she heads off to speak to the nation's housewives. But when her car breaks down and the dashing and charismatic Freddie springs to her rescue, she is led in a very different direction...
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: My four great-grandfathers all served on the Western Front and I grew up in a house full of polished-up shell cases and silk postcards. In my childhood, the First World War seemed to be the answer to so many questions about our family history.
As a history PhD student, I adored research; it always seemed such a privilege to be allowed into archives, and behind the scenes in museums, and to have that sense of direct contact with the past. I became a commercial researcher after university, but history remained my out-of-hours passion through those years—and, while I worked in Belgium and France, I had the chance to pursue my interest in the First World War.
In 2019, I shifted from researching history to writing historical fiction. It's the period immediately after the First World War that especially draws me in; time and again, my writing returns to this strange time of dislocation, the physical and psychological upheaval, the processing of memory and experience, and the task of getting back to something that might be called normal.
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