What’s this book? (Food & History)

Nannarose the illustrations in Grey Rabbit are so beautiful.

There were quite a few similar female illustrators at that time, including Margaret Tempest.

About time and change; DH and I watched Ruth Goodman’s The Edwardian Farm yesterday.
The changes that have happened in such a relatively short period of time are phenomenal. It can’t be good for us. I have a feeling that we are now reaping what we have sown.

Yes, The Country Child by Alison Uttley, published in 1931. I loved Little Grey Rabbit as a child - it all seemed very familiar. I didn't read this book until I was an adult, but recognised a lot of it.
I was born post-war when a lot of things were changing very quickly.

MaizieD My great grandparents were Irish immigrants, who lived in real poverty near London Bridge. Mayhew classified the area just above areas occupied by prostitute and criminal

The 'thing' about Round About a Pound a Week was that these workers weren't officially considered to be in poverty.
Has much changed as far as 'officialdom' is concerned?

My maternal gmother in the 1930s was left with 3 children and a husband unable to work. She went out charring to earn some money. They did live in the country so were able to grow some of their own food. It was hard for her, though, she'd had servants in Jamaica... (not rich & posh, just lower middling class)

Nannarose that sounds lovely. Especially the pigs!
In fact it’s just reminded me about Alison Utley’s book (obviously earlier than that).
I think that I’ve got it somewhere… ? ? ?

MaizieD My great grandparents were Irish immigrants, who lived in real poverty near London Bridge. Mayhew classified the area just above areas occupied by prostitute and criminals.

My GGM was widowed at 35 with 4 children and a fifth on the way. She worked as a sack maker and her eldest daughter worked as a shirt ironer. the eldest son was an errand boy.

They wroked their way up, rather the children did. But the poverty they faced in London was probably less than the poverty and famine they faced in Ireland.

I read round About a Pound A Week when at school. We thought we were very lucky, living in the countryside, and in villages where gardens were not large, there was the 'garden field' (which were called 'allotments' elsewhere). Many folk still kept chickens, and a few still had a pig - I used to love scratching their ears and scrubbing them with a brush.
My grandparents almost never used sugar - they had bees, so honey was the usual sweetener. They did buy expensive sugar for making blackberry and apple jam (never any other kind!) which was spread on bread, and spooned over porridge & rice pudding. There was some discussion about the use of sugar, as their grandparents had boycotted it because of slavery.

Amberone

Would have been very close M0nica, the study was on working class people in Lambeth. Not the very poor, but people bringing home a regular wage and bringing up a family.

That's what made it such an eye opener. The fact that this was a 'regular' wage and it was such a struggle to keep the family fed, clothed and housed. What must it have been like to be actually 'poor'?

Maggie Black has written many books on food history , still in print, recipies included.

Apologies if that’s a ridiculous question!

Monica that’s fascinating about your grandfather!
Do you remember what he wore?

Thank you Ladyleftfieldlover
I’ve just finished watching Ruth Goodman’s TV series The Victorian Farm and I’ve been listening to the audio book of How to be a Victorian
Ruth comes across as such a lovely person - I can understand why her ancestors got their surname. She seems so genuine, unlike some (cough - ^Lucy Wordsley^)

Monica I’ve been looking at The Domestic Revolution this morning. I’m looking forward to it too.

Thank you to everyone for all of your interesting suggestions

Reay Tannahill wrote a History of Food which I enjoyed reading .... in the late 1970s I think. I see it is still available.

Would have been very close M0nica, the study was on working class people in Lambeth. Not the very poor, but people bringing home a regular wage and bringing up a family.

That was my maternal grandparents, in particular, living in Bermondsey on a dockers wages, although my grandfather later became a private decective, not sure the money was much better, but the status was!

Two of my favourite books are Roundabout a Pound a Week by Maud Pember Reeves which documents the results of a study on working class lives done by the Fabian Women's Group in 1913,

Round About a Pound a Week is an absolute eye opener. Not particularly food related, but a graphic account of how the 'respectable working classes' managed on very poor wages. That would be many of our great grandparents (or even grandparents), I think.

Very good if you're interested in social history as well as food.

Yes, because it is the history of how diet has evolved in the UK over centuries, and , although it does have recipes in it, it is not really meant to be a recipe book, so if, as a vegetarian, you are looking for recipes, do not waste your time. If you are intersted in the history of agriculture and how our diet evolved, then it is of interest to everybody.

Another interesting book, I am hoping, should be ^The Domestic Revolution - How the introduction of coal into our homes changed everything by Ruth Goodman. I have it on order from Postscript www.psbooks.co.uk/Domestic-Revolution

Yes, I think it would, but although it contains quite a lot of recipes, it is much more about the kind of food being eaten in England.
There are a lot of traditional English dishes that don't contain meat. There are a lot of recipes for preserving, which some of us remember as being so important.
I wouldn't however, buy it for recipes, but for interest. She describes the making of almond milk and nut butter.

Daft question....... would the Dorothy Hartley book be of any interest to a vegetarian, please?

Hi Fanny
I was quite late back from London and went back to bed this morning for an hour! My partial replacement knee was playing up so I couldn’t sleep. Anyway, someone mentioned Dorothy Hartley’s ‘Food in England’, which I bought second hand off Amazon. ‘How to be a Victorian’ by Ruth Goodman is worth a read as is ‘Georgian London’ by Lucy Inglis. I think someone mentioned ‘Scoff - A History of Food and Class in Britain’ by Pen Vogler. There are some interesting chapters on food in Simon Schama’s ‘Wordy’. I have a copy of the ‘Constance Spry Cookery Book’ by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume. That had some excellent essays on things ranging from Train Food to Cocktail Parties.

I live in Derbyshire Amber!
But I’m vegetarian (well, pescatarian really ) so I will have to improvise around the Sheep’s head ?

FannyCornforth

Ooh that second one sounds lovely Amberone ♥️
I’m quite into the new cottagecore thing.
(It suits my ‘lifestyle’ - scruffy, tiny house; field and cows at the bottom of the garden)

It's a lovely little book FC based on historical papers from the author's family.

It will teach you not only how to remove stains from your silks and kid gloves but how to make Derbyshire Sheep's Head Pie, bottle your fruit, make your own medicines from the garden and how to kill cockroaches ???

It does have some lovely recipes from Cumberland and Derbyshire though.

www.amazon.co.uk/Scoff-History-Food-Class-Britain/dp/178649647X?tag=gransnetforum-21

Ooh, learned something new today! Thanks, MaizieD

Ooh that second one sounds lovely Amberone ♥️
I’m quite into the new cottagecore thing.
(It suits my ‘lifestyle’ - scruffy, tiny house; field and cows at the bottom of the garden)

I have a second edition of this book! No one else I know has ever heard of it ?

Two of my favourite books are Roundabout a Pound a Week by Maud Pember Reeves which documents the results of a study on working class lives done by the Fabian Women's Group in 1913, and Tuppenny Rice and Treacle by Doris E Coates which discusses cottage housekeeping between 1900 and 1920

That swindled book is from eBay uk but available on eBay au for $12.41, we have to pay postage of $19 here but should be cheaper internally for you.