Scrumptious! 1st pub 1950 John Lehmann. Also excerpts from An Omelette and a Glass of Wine. ( )

Oh, come on. This is one of the best cook books ever. I don't need to tell you why. Just go get it now. ( )

This has been one of my favourite books for almost as long as I can remember. My mother was given it when food rationing in Britain was still a very recent memory, and so for a new widow with two boys this was probably the most impractical recipe book that it was possible to obtain, including as it does methods of preparing kid and saddle of boar; and the famous 'Lievre a la Royale', with its instructions for catching your hare, is given in full. However, most of the recipes are not nearly so heroic, and they concentrate in the main on the kind of everyday food that inhabitants of the lands bordering the Mediterranean would have enjoyed, using local ingredients. Nevertheless, my mother never attempted any of these recipes, and nor have I.

Yet in spite of its lack of utility, the book has a certain magic about it, and I know of none other that can so rapidly conjure up (particularly in the cold dark days of winter) the sensations of a warm, bucolic and timeless Mediterranean world that probably no longer exists and may well have been somewhat bogus even sixty years ago. This conjuration is due in no small measure to the 'decorations' by John Minton, and in particular to the literary extracts which preface each section. Here you can sample the gastronomic musings of such diverse writers as William Beckford of Fonthill, Lt Col Newnham-Davis, Tobias Smollet and Gertrude Stein - this last with a classic anecdote concerning eggs and Matisse.

So this is a wholehearted recommendation, but with the proviso that I can say nothing as to whether the recipes work or not! ( )

1st ed. DW. Ms. David's first title. ( )