This is surely the most extraordinary book on food and eating ever published in the English language. Miss Pennell, who was a correspondent for the Pall Mall Gazette at the height of its amusement and fashionability, was obviously the inspiration of the ‘Two Fat Ladies’. Writing about good food with good writing has never been done so successfully. Beginning with an essay on the virtue of gluttony it traverses past breakfast, sandwiches, dinner, supper, portage, soups, sole, oysters, partridge, salads and savouries, coming sadly to an all too soon a stop at cheese and coffee. Oh, but not forgetting a skirmish with the vegetables.

This edition first published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.