Jenny Linford
A bookworm as a child, Jenny Linford’s first ‘proper’ job was as a bookseller, working for Hatchards in those far-away, pre-computer days of stock cards, microfiche and using your memory. Her fascination with food (alright, then, greed) combined with a love of words, led her to take up food writing as a career. Her latest cookbook is The London Cookbook (Metro Publications), a celebration of London's cosmopolitan gastronomic scene, featuring recipes from both Jenny and assorted food-loving Londoners, interviews and food history. While reading widely, she finds herself particularly drawn towards books about natural history, children’s fiction and, of course, food. You can find out more on her website: www.jennylinford.com.
Charles Dickens: A Life, by Claire Tomalin
Reviewed on January 6, 2012
The bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth has seen the Dickens industry spring into action as busily as the mills in Hard Times’ Coketown. Our fascination with this Victorian writer shows no sign of abating. His appeal is not simply to academics and students of English literature, as the numerous film versions of Dickens’s Christmas Carol [...]
The Pursued, by C.S. Forester
Reviewed on November 14, 2011
This is an intriguing book. To begin with, this is a novel written in 1935 but then lost for years and so never published in its author’s lifetime, re-discovered and so now being published for the first time, which creates a certain frisson. It is also a crime novel, whereas nowadays its author C.S. Forester [...]
The Penguin Great Food Series
Reviewed on September 13, 2011
Great Food, a series of attractively packaged, short books celebrating four hundred years of food writing and consisting of edited highlights from 20 authors. By creating this series Penguin are bringing these writers’ voices to a new audience and are to be applauded for this. Looking through the menu of titles, one is offered a [...]
Waste, by Tristram Stuart
Reviewed on December 1, 2010
I challenge anyone to read this powerful, passionately written book without feeling a pang of guilt. That may sound off-putting, but it shouldn’t be; instead it’s a tribute to the relevance of this powerful indictment of our current food system. The sub-title of this fascinating book makes Stuart’s aim clear: ‘Uncovering the global food scandal’. Stuart [...]
Real England: The Battle Against the Bland, by Paul Kingsnorth
Reviewed on March 26, 2010
An impassioned rallying cry against the increasing homogenisation of the world around us, Paul Kingsnorth’s book at once engages and enrages. The quest for ‘real’ England takes Kingsnorth on a journey throughout Britain. En route, he meets both campaigners fighting to save things precious to them and the corporate officials whose policies are resulting in [...]
Ox-Tales: Air, by Alexander McCall Smith, Helen Fielding, Beryl Bainbridge and others
Reviewed on July 24, 2009
In an intriguing take on the ‘charity book”, Oxfam have moved beyond the comparatively obvious option of books such as recipe books, turning innovatively instead to contemporary fiction as a source of fund-raising. Oxfam has lined up an impressive group of eminent writers, chosen the four elements – Water, Air, Earth and Fire – as [...]
The Good Plain Cook, by Bethan Roberts
Reviewed on July 5, 2009
When Ellen Steinberg, a wealthy American widow with Bohemian tendencies advertises for ‘a good plain cook’ to work in her country home, Kitty, keen to escape life with her sister, applies for the job (lying about her cooking abilities) and is taken on. With this simple event, inspired by a real-life incident in the life [...]
Fever Crumb, by Philip Reeve
Reviewed on June 16, 2009
Fans of Philip Reeve are in for a treat with this imaginative ‘prequel’ to the Mortal Engines series. The book follows the adventures of the eponymous heroine, Fever Crumb, first encountered as an abandoned child being brought up by the Order of Engineers, who apply logic, rather than emotion, to their existence. Sent away to [...]
Bears of England, by Mick Jackson
Reviewed on June 14, 2009
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase ‘bears of England’? Maybe Winnie the Pooh, affable and bemused, Paddington Bear, friendly, inquisitive and always ready for a marmalade sandwich or soft-furred teddy bears, cuddly, much-loved companions of childhood. Writer Mick Jackson reaches into a far darker series of stories about bears to create this [...]
An Edible History of Humanity, by Tom Standage
Reviewed on May 21, 2009
As wide-ranging as its title suggests, this book offers a broad sweep of human history – from prehistory to current times – refracted through the prism of food. Standage begins by showing how early hunter-gatherer communities, where food was shared in an egalitarian way, change with the advent of farming into unequal societies, marked by [...]
Doing Without Delia, by Michael Booth
Reviewed on May 5, 2009
Please give a hearty welcome to our newest reviewer, Jenny Linford. Jenny is a professional food writer, and we are sure you will enjoy her debut review… As the title suggests, this book is Michael Booth’s autobiographical account of abandoning the TV cooks he once adored and their simple, accessible dishes in order to embrace [...]
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Simon Kernick
Simon Kernick is one of Britain’s most exciting new thriller writers. He arrived on the crime writing scene with his highly acclaimed debut novel The Business of Dying, the story of a corrupt cop moonlighting as a hitman. However, Simon’s big breakthrough came with his novel Relentless which was selected by Richard and Judy for [...]
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Five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was one of the big film releases of 2011, and to celebrate its release on DVD we have five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won – consisting of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People.
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