Product Description

Put a cup of tea in your hand, and what else can you do but sit down? This wonderful new book is a celebration of that most British of life's cornerstones: taking a break, putting your feet up and having a breather. There is, however, a third element that any perfect sit down requires and it is this: biscuits. As Nicey so rightly points out, a cup of tea without a biscuit is a missed opportunity. Finding the right biscuit for the right occasion is as much an art as it is a science, and it is a task that Nicey has selflessly worked on for most of his tea drinking life. From dunking to the Digestive, the Iced Gem to the Garibaldi, everything you'll ever need to know about biscuits is in this book, and quite a lot more besides. Is the Jaffa Cake a cake or a biscuit? And have Wagon Wheels really got smaller since your childhood, or have you just got bigger? Unstintingly researched, Nicey and Wifey's Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down does exactly what it says on the biscuit tin. So go on. Take a weight off, put the kettle on, and enjoy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66205 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-21
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 179 pages

Review
'The world's leading biscuit critic' THE SUNDAY TIMES

About the Author
Stuart Payne is a web engineer by training. He lives with his wife, Jenny, in Cambridge.

Customer Reviews

The book I have been waiting my life for.
This book is magnificent. It has, at last, taken one of the great British contributions to world civilisation, and put it into literary form. The act of taking tea and biscuits, an area of culture ignored for centuries, is finally given its due.

Of course 'tea and biscuits' is an incredibly wide and complex subject, and the author (and his wife) acknowledge that they cannot possibly give an account of all its varieties and complexities. But what we get is a wide-ranging account of taking tea and biscuits- and an occasional cake- with illustrated descriptions and reviews of a range of biscuits at its heart. Not in the least insular, the author (and his wife) include accounts of the (few) significant biscuits offered from further afield, such as the Australian Tim Tam, the American Oreo, and (my favourite) the German Choco Leibniz alongside our familiar Gingernuts, Rich Tea and of course Digestives.

The author, who had a scientific education, is a born writer. His style is straightforward and lucid. He is often extremely funny. I laughed out loud on a number of occasions,as early as page three, an account of 'My Worst Cup of Tea Ever'.Read it and you will see what I mean. The book is wide-ranging; aspects of taking tea that are covered include the development of the tea bag (an American invention, evidently); teapots, and their propensity to pour scalding tea over one's lap; and how to notate the endless ways your work colleagues take their tea when it is your turn to make it (a sore point with me).

There is even a sensible short article on the presence of hydrogenated vegetable fat in biscuits (the stuff that sends your blood cholesterol level soaring), and, to cap it all, how to sit down to enjoy your tea and biscuit experience to the full.

The book is beautifully presented, printed on quality paper, well illustrated, and very reasonably priced.

I was going to withhold one star as there is no index (an unfortunate modern trend), but then I sat down, had a nice cup of tea and a biscuit, and decided to award it five.

A nice cup of tea, a sit down and a good book.
Nicey does it again. After writing the funniest and best web site I have ever seen he has put it into book format with lots of extras. An absolute triumph for the master of biscuit reviews. He also includes sections on
Kettle Etiquette
Tea bag technology
Work tea making
Personal mugs explained
Tea notation, how to do it
Teapot testing
Sugar, how not to give it to somebody who really wants it
and even branches out into the previously unchartered territory of cake. Where will it all end. Buy it. It's superb.

The Halliwell of tea and biscuits
I gobbled up this book in a sitting. In fact I was so absorbed by it I didn't even put the kettle on. The authors do a great service by marshalling legions of biscuits, new and old, and providing a superb critique of the major varieties. Barring the odd unaccountable omission (what happened to the presumptuously titled Nice biscuit, for example?) the work is very thorough and wholly digestible. Wonderful. Procure with confidence.