I am thrilled to be taking part in the Random Things blog tour for Good Taste today. I received a copy of this book as part of the tour.
It’s 1932 and Stella Douglas is the author of a biography that has not been flying off of the shelves. When she is summoned to see her editor, she is sure that this is going to put an end to her writing career. However, she is surprised when she is commissioned to write a book about the history of English food. Her editor believes that, as the nation is in the midst of the Great Depression,
Stella uses part of her advance to start travelling around the country looking for old recipes and traditional food to write about. However, what she starts to realise is that lots of traditional recipes have their origins based elsewhere.
When she goes to Oxfordshire her car breaks down and she is rescued by dashing Antique dealer Freddie at the side of the road, her plans suddenly take a different direction.
I loved this book and particularly like the back story that you get about the characters and Stella’s time living in Paris.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of the traditional foods that Stella is searching for and it made me realise that there are many recipes I haven’t tried. I would definitely like to go to Bath to try a Sally Lunn bun.
I haven’t read a huge number of novels set during the 1930s and I felt like this addressed the issues of the time well. This is an excellent read, one of my favourite parts is the letters that people sent to Stella with their recipes. I also really liked the cover.
