The Hungry Empire :How Britain’s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World
The Hungry Empire :How Britain’s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World
paperback
Published:
9 August, 2018
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Description
'A wholly pleasing book, which offers a tasty side dish to anyone exploring the narrative history of the British Empire' Max Hastings, Sunday Times
WINNER OF THE GUILD OF FOOD WRITERS BOOK AWARD 2018
The glamorous daughter of an African chief shares a pineapple with a slave trader… Surveyors in British Columbia eat tinned Australian rabbit… Diamond prospectors in Guyana prepare an iguana curry…
In twenty meals The Hungry Empire tells the story of how the British created a global network of commerce and trade in foodstuffs that moved people and plants from one continent to another, reshaping landscapes and culinary tastes. The Empire allowed Britain to harness the globe’s edible resources from cod fish and salt beef to spices, tea and sugar.
Lizzie Collingham takes us on a wide-ranging culinary journey, revealing how virtually every meal we eat still contains a taste of empire.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780099586951 |
| ISBN10 | 0099586959 |
| Number Of Pages | 400 |
| Item Weight | 293 g |
| Product Dimensions | 129 x 198 x 25 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Vintage Publishing |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
This is a fascinating and timely study of the far-flung sources of our food supply -- Jane Shilling * Daily Mail *
After reading this you’ll never sit down to dinner without finding a trace of empire in your meal again * Strong Words *
A wholly pleasing book, which offers a tasty side dish to anyone exploring the narrative history of the British Empire -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *
Revelatory... Original, thought-provoking and highly entertaining -- Daisy Goodwin * The Times *
Dazzling… This book’s treatment of food in the empire is innovative and exciting… A remarkable achievement * Guardian *
Fascinating… This is a marvellously wide-ranging and readable book, stuffed with engaging details and startling connections * Financial Times *
Joyously delicious…In her original and supremely captivating book, [Collingham] has cleverly recreated the fine details of some 20 meals, consumed for four and a half centuries in a variety of homes and ships and tented encampments far from the motherland…In British terms, she is Henry Mayhew and Mass-Observation rolled into one—a stellar observer of the day-to-day and the mundane, a social historian of extraordinary talent * New York Times Book Review *
The Hungry Empire is impressively scholarly… it is also fascinating. And although Collingham does not flinch from the cruelties and brutalities of empire, she refrains from the self-congratulatory finger-wagging indulged in by some modern historians * Daily Telegraph *
Some of the most revelatory anecdotes are the funniest… As with all her work, Collingham has read most of what matters and has selected from it with a lively eye… She can unwind suggestive strands of evidence to lead readers through the labyrinth… Her brisk narrative of the origins of IPA is exemplary * Literary Review *
Fascinating… Collingham’s decision to organize her enormously ambitious research around a series of intimate family meals is a good one. Material that would otherwise be numbingly abstract is made profoundly personal… You will certainly enjoy the journey * Mail on Sunday *
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Lizzie Collingham taught History at Warwick University and was a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge before becoming an independent historian. Her books include Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors and The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food. She is currently an Associate Fellow of Warwick University and the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge. She recently completed a project researching the history of the kitchens of the Indian President’s palace and regularly lectures on a gastronomic tour of Kerala. She works in a garden shed near Cambridge.