Product Description

When Paul Arnott was a small boy his mother gave him sugar and melted butter for a sore throat and all hot meals were followed by sponge and custard. His first love was the magnificent green tin of Tate & Lyle’s faux honey from Warrington: Golden Syrup. A passionate affair with sweet stuff had begun.

Paul’s love of sugar has taken him far and wide. From a cake factory in Bangalore where, on the basis of his round face he was offered a role in a Bollywood film, to Pennyslvania to investigate the town of Hershey, built by the chocolate magnate for his workers. He pays homage to the work of the Papa Bubble at the Caramel Artisans factory shop in Barcelona and the master baker of the Greek island of Spetses. Into the mix he adds something of the history, economy and industry of sugar.

As Paul's love of sweet stuff grew, so did his waist. He contends that, contrary to what many would have us believe, eating cake isn’t a sin. It’s an indulgence. And the experiences that caused every extra pound should be revered and celebrated. LET ME EAT CAKE is a memoir of love for sweet sensations, Larousse Gastronomique written by Billy Bunter. Funny, charming and full of surprising stories it will leave you feeling deliciously full.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #377301 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

The Bookseller
`I love this scrumptious memoir of life with the sweetest of
teeth.'

Review

'This is a lovely book - Arnott has written a story that is by turns thoughtful and comforting, and nostalgic as hell.'

‘Arnott is adept at telling wonderful stories, but it’s his warm, affectionate take on growing up, and out, that makes this such a lovely book...I was won over by the sweetness of it all.’

'A nostalgic sugarfest. Arnott writes extremely well, icing his prose with subtle, ironic humour...A light, funny, informative, highly enjoyable confection that offers much instant gratification. Enjoy'

'If T.S.Eliot's life was measured out in coffee spoons, Paul Arnott's has been punctuated by bars of dairy milk chocolate and Mr Kipling's exceedingly calorific cakes. His sweet, funny, sugar-coated memoir is light as a fairy cake.'

The Times
'His sweet, funny, sugar-coated memoir is light as a fairy cake'

Customer Reviews

Profoundly funny pro-cake memoir for real humans everywhere
I don't know about other readers but I just don't seem to be able to find books which make me laugh recently, but for the last few nights I have had complaints from my husband as I've hooted out loud reading this book while he is trying to get to sleep. Paul Arnott's writing has more than a touch of Wodehouse about it, but with an entirely modern flair, and if there is a better anecdotal memoir on the shelves at the moment I'd love to see it. Amazingly, in amongst a feast of stories - some touching, others a little rude - he has weaved a brilliant story of the sugar industry, the history of chocolate, and a plea for the Viennese way of eating cake while talking big ideas. He is a seriously likeable narrator, and if you're as tired of the bullying of people who enjoy their food as I am then this book will be right up your street. Last time my book club met we met we discussed The Trouble With Kevin and we all wanted to kill ourselves afterwards - Let Me Eat Cake is the antidote!

Brilliant entertaining memoir
This is anti-food-fascism, so I suppose I shouldn't say that Paul Arnott believes that you are what you eat. But he consumes - and has consumed - a lot of cakes and has a sweet style, full of witty one-liners and hilarious anecdotes. Highly recommended.

Forget the gym, read 'Let me Eat Cake' instead!
This is a gem of a book that will lighten the dark, cold, post Christmas evenings, and will keep you chuckling throughout.

A beautifully observed and humourous journey through the key moments in his life, Paul Arnott shares numerous slices of delicious treats with us, and ladles on extra cream with every portion.

It's the perfect antidote to the grumpiness of so much writing by 40 somethings these days, who all seem so angry and doom laden. Arnott's book is such a pleasingly nostalgic, warming and comfortable place to be for an hour each night, and I am in awe of how devoted he's been to his subject over the years. It's so refreshing to read about someone indulging themselves and celebrating the feeling, without displaying the slightest bit of guilt.

I love the way he weaves his cast of sweet delights into his biography, like the comfort of friends, many of which you will know and remember with nostalgia; wagon wheels, mars bars, battenburg cake, treacle sponge, bakewell tarts and Genoa cake.

I laughed out loud at the story of Arnott's 400 metre race against the now enobled Sebastian Coe, in an inter University athletics competition in the 1980's. His ignominious defeat, torn hamstring and subsequent aquaplane across the track headlong into the longjump sandpit, reassures us all that it is all about the taking part after all, and that the British Rail tea and piece of Genoa cake were as memorable as the contest.

I literally salivated at his first proper Apple Strudel, because it took me back to 1967 and the Café Tyrol in Innsbruck on my first skiing trip en famille, and my first taste of a real apple strudel - sheer heaven - I could have eaten six slices.

At a time when everyone is yelling at us to join a gym and go on the cabbage diet, do yourself a favour, save the money and buy 'Let me eat Cake' instead!