A lovely book by Artemis Cooper. It looks at the life of Elizabeth David, who in many ways was a very important writer in shaping British views on European food at the end of world war two.
David may not have been the greatest cook in the world but she had vision and had travelled widely before and after the war, giving her an extensive range of experiences to draw on. The ability to capture the imagination of the public and to take them along with you is important in introducing new ideas.
The one thing that Cooper goes to great pains to point out is the primitive nature of British food at this time and how much it needed to be revitalised, by new ideas and approaches. The key to this was not so much books but mass market magazines. They get into more homes and are more widely used as reference material in peoples kitchens.
Its a good book about an important person but on a personal note it seems that she often had a very unhappy life. The book is an official biography which means he had access to her notes and journals.
On the whole an interesting read.
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