Arabella Boxer's Book of English Food

Book excerpt: Arabella Boxer's Book of English Food describes the delicious dishes - and the social conditions in which they were prepared, cooked and eaten - in the short span between the two world wars when English cooking suddenly blossomed. The food in these wonderful recipes comes from the great country houses, where little had changed since Victorian times, the large houses in London and the south, where fashionable hostesses vied with each other to entertain the most distinguished guests at their tables, and less grand establishments, like those in Bloomsbury where the painters and writers of the day contrived to lead cultured and civilised lives on little money. Containing 200 recipes, drawn from cookery books, magazines of the period, family sources or from talking to survivors who still remember those days, Arabella Boxer's Book of English Food is a fascinating glimpse into another world, and a celebration of English cooking at its finest.