Food in England: A Complete Guide to the Food That Makes Us Who We are

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It is still alive in the pancakes we eat with lemons for Shrove Tuesday or the mincemeat and puddings of Christmas.

It shouldn't be read like a cookbook, a history book, or an ethnographic essay because it is none of these things, and all of these things at the same time. It's a sharp and funny compendium of cooking tips and treats, from medieval times to the modern day .

Slightly Foxed introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal. The latter sounds far-fetched, until Hartley explains how she used a dog churn once herself : a large wooden wheel on which the dogs ran, attached to a churn. Her appreciation of English food was rare in that she started not with ingredients but with tools and techniques.

In her view, this had a far bigger impact on the quality of food eaten than whether you were rich or poor. This book ought to be required reading for every Englishman (and woman), every tourist to England, every Ambassador, visiting Head of State, postgraduate student, et al. It's been a happy time …" At the time she was writing, many British kitchens had started to whirr with electric blenders, Kenwood mixers and fridges. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it's more like having a well-read friend than a subscription to a literary review.The final image of what I hope is a warm and celebratory film is a home movie of her in old age, showing her doing what she loved to do: working in the garden, and digging up potatoes for dinner.