The Language of Food - Eliza Acton

1313 Doniphan Place,Las Cruces NM 88007

15 December, 2023

Description

When a set of her poetry was rejected for publishing in the 1830s, Eliza Acton was asked instead to write a cookbook. Eliza Acton had never boiled an egg. Over a period of ten years – and with the help of a little-known woman called Ann Kirby - Acton transformed into a domestic goddess and wrote a book that changed food writing forever. Join Annabel Abbs discussing her new book, and discover the life of the author behind Britain’s first cookbook for the domestic reader. In this talk, Annabel will also explain how she found Eliza Acton in a box of books, how she researched a woman who left no letters or diaries, and what we can learn about the past through the joy of eating and cooking. ‘The Language of Food’ is Annabel’s celebratory re-telling of the lost story of a woman who pioneered cooking as we know it. Annabel Abbs is the rising star of biographical historical novels. Her debut novel, The Joyce Girl, won the Impress Prize and was a Guardian Reader's Pick. Her second novel, Frieda: The Original Lady Chatterley, was a Times 2018 Book of the Year. Her memoir, Windswept: Why Women Walk, examines the walking lives of twentieth century women and was shortlisted for the Biographer’s Club Best First Biography Prize and the Banff Award. She has been longlisted for the Bath Novel Award, the Caledonia Novel Award and the Waverton GoodRead Award.