Product Description

Written in a style similar to that of Nigel Slater's multi-award-winning food memoir 'Toast', this is a celebration of the glory, humour, eccentricities and embarrassments that are The British at Table. The British have a relationship with their food that

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33494 in Books
• Brand: Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Amazon.co.uk
How long does it take before somebody becomes a national treasure? It’s certainly happened to Nigel Slater, and Eating for England is a highly enjoyable reminder of just why we esteem the estimable Mr Slater. Subtitled The Delights & Eccentricities of the British at Table, this is wonderfully entertaining stuff, explaining such matters as how some of our most cherished foods are the result of frugality (bread and butter pudding, for instance, is the direct result of utilising a few slices of leftover bread and a pat of butter, rather than culinary aspiration). As Slater points out, the British have a relationship with food which is quite unlike that of any other nation -- for many years, we were reluctant to discuss food matters (leaving culinary discussion to, for instance, the French), but we now appear to be in the grip of a national food obsession, with program after program on television and -- inevitably -- a host of books on the subject. But few are written as entertainingly as Nigel Slater’s. It isn't just the discussion of food itself (from haute cuisine to the humblest of comfort foods) that’s so diverting here, but other sociological (and tongue-in-cheek) related matters, such as ‘A Teenager at the Table’ (‘The shoulders droop, the head hangs sulkily down, eyes glaring intently at an invisible spot on their lap. Their whole body seems to say ‘I'm not eating this’). And Nigel Slater is perfectly happy to address subjects not found in any other food books (such as the modest chocolate bar -- different varieties are entertainingly compared and contrasted).

This is a personal portrait of the British and their food, filled with love of the eccentricities and peculiarities that encapsulate the national character. And it's great fun. --Barry Forshaw

Harper's Bazaar
'Slater's fans will be sure to snap this one up.'

Sunday Times
'[Nigel Slater] is a national treasure.'

Customer Reviews

Pick n' Mix
"Eating for England" is a Pick n' Mix of a book. Read it all in one go and it gets repetitive and downright indigestible. But there are a few sweet and well-written little pieces within that make the book worthwhile. I would not really recommend this to anyone under 30 or over 65: and if you are the sort of person who is quickly bored by 40-somethings reminiscing about BBC children's programs of the 1960s or long-vanished crisp flavours, then you should give it a miss, too.

Where Nigel Slater's book rises above the standard nostalgia-trip, it does so because he can write well on occasions and his genuine love of food comes through. But there were far too many instances when a well-written piece was followed by yet another push for Farmers' Markets or another dive into the 1960s biscuit tin which all got a bit too much even for this nostalgia fan.

You'd have to be a Nigel ...
... to write this. Or a Jeremy. Or possibly a Terence. But maybe we all have anorak-y tendencies when it comes to name-checking the fondly remembered foods of our 1950s and 60s childhoods.
But sorry, Nigel - you've done this too many times before - and so have too many other people. Spangles, Dairylea triangles, Jammie Dodgers, Tunnock's teacakes have had the Proustian treatment before. And let's face it though Spangles now RIP, nearly all of these along with Sarson's vinegar and Bisto can be bought in any Tesco today. Though I agree that floral gums (and cherry lips, the best for eating surreptitiously through double Latin) have had the chemistry formula changed and don't taste the same.
When Nigel gets stuck, or his Proustian madeleine/Rich Tea disintegrates soggily into his mug of PG, he throws in a page or two about farmers' markets - and then he simply gets BORING.
Eating for England is simply Toast reheated. And Nigel is getting to be an old aunt who retells the same stories too many times. (He's getting careless, too; the delectable lime barrel was never in Dairy Box, p166, it was everybody's favourite centre in Milk Tray. And Dairy Box wasn't made by Cadbury's, either. )

A disappointing mess of a book
"Eating For England" is re-heated "Toast". Disappointingly, Slater has produced a clunker here, and where Toast worked because he linked food memories to his own childhood, this latest volume lacks any structure on which to hang various short observations and sketches about food. What's more, it's quite repetitive in places, and simpy doesn't work in others.

Slater at his best pinpoints a long forgotten food memory that several of us of a certain age will have had. There are a few gems like that here (the whole chocolate Club biscuit experience for example) - but these are too few and far between for my liking.

Nigel Slater writes best about himself and his relationship with food. When he tries something different - observational stuff about different types of cook, or diner, it simply doesn't work because he's not part of that set up. You can't remain aloof from such things and pretend otherwise. These pieces of the book come over as phoney - and in places bitchy and unamusing.

"The Kitchen Diaries" was neither a practical cook book or a particularly entertaining diary; "Eating For England" maintains this loss of focus from an excellent food writer who needs to re-connect with a loyal audience next time around. Nige - let's just cut to the recipes for the next one, eh?