Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35772 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
... handsome and readable ... will be enjoyed by people interested in the diversity of British fruit and vegetables and the stories behind their development. --Joy Larkcom, The Garden, September 2008

...my favourite book of the year. Written with passion and real knowledge of his subject ... you will be inspired. --Monty Don, Daily Mail

a feast of pleasure . fantastic, meticulously researched, wonderful descriptions, lots of anecdotes, lots of practical advice . a serious work and fascinating read ... plenty of humour . hugely important. --Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time - a Book of the Year.

Anna Pavord, Gardens Illustrated, 1 May 2008
'[a] captivating book ... written with a wonderfully light and assured touch.'

Simon Tiffin, Telegraph, 25 April 2008
'... a great source of inspiration ...'

Customer Reviews

If they're forgotten, this is a great reminder
Christopher Stock's book is such a nice, anti-market forces type of book. Stocks has gone all over Britain to research the stories of heritage fruit and veg varieties - the kind that taste really good but maybe don't look quite as uniform, neat and tidy. There's the right amount of history - from the French spy Frézier to Charlotte Knight, cherry breeder - and he's not pretending to have solved every puzzle - the Bascombe Mystery remains just that.

Each variety is treated in a section that's just the right length - about a page or so. The first section alone, Apples, made me want to go to an Apple day and actually try some of the fragrant fruit he enthuses about - the Cornish Gilliflower, the Crawley Beauty. There's lots of practical info in there too - Dumelow's seedling has better flavour and texture than a Bramley for mincemeat and baking, for example. Good lists of suppliers and historic veg gardens to visit, too.

i don't know whether I will ever read it all the way through, but it's such a treat for a bathroom - ten minutes in the bath with this utterly relaxing book and you feel the woes and stresses of everyday life sink away as you ponder the Long Green Ridge Cucumber and other marvels of yesteryear.

My only, only complaint would be that the two sections of colour photos seemed like a bit of a waste of time. The black and white engravings which pepper the text are much more evocative.

My favourite bit: finding out that the radish was "rated so far above other foods" in Ancient Greece that "in the Temple of Apollo a radish modelled in gold was dedicated as a votive offering."

Delectable!
A charming glimpse into the highways and byways of England's horticultural (and culinary) history, illuminated by fascinating anecdotes. Perfect for dipping into and strongly recommended for gardeners and cooks alike.

Good enough to eat
Like the best fruit and veg, this delicious book appeals to all the senses at once. Meticulously researched, it dispels a few allotment myths, fixes facts and sets the record straight in a number of instances. It will be devoured greedily by hard-headed horticulturists and dewy-eyed nostalgics alike; for the historian it supplies a ticklish, oblique insight into Britain's social history. This is a serious and definitive work of fact liltingly well written, bathed in warm, light humour. It is both a work of delight and a work of reference. For lovers of language there is a euphony in plant names which places them right up there with Dorset place names. They taste as well in the mouth as their subjects. Savour them: Cranston's Excelsior, Vaux's Self-Folding, Hero of the Nile, Long Prickly...

This book has no rivals. It deserves to be established in discriminating bookshelves everywhere, planted where it can be easily and frequently reached.