The programme tells the story of the woman behind the ultimate book on the history of cooking, ‘Food in England’ (Macdonald, 1954). I don't know how to close this review, the book is one of a kind in my opinion, partly because it is not pretentious, and not fashionable in any way, but never boring. You can tell that Dorothy Hartley wrote this massive book because she wanted to do it for herself. It is as authentic as you can get. In fact you can't get that level of authenticity nowadays - it would have never been written or published. Or the publisher/editor would have drawn and trussed (to borrow an oft used expression from this book) it to fit 2018, so it would lose 75-80% of what it makes it unique. Then we began skipping about all over the place, just like Dorothy herself in her role as the roving reporter for rural England in the 1930s. At this point I began to realize that not only was she a terrific oral historian and journalist, but a pretty unusual woman for her time. Far from settling down, she speeded up, refusing to marry or have children and indeed devoting herself entirely to her work of recording the past. The Historic Royal Palaces curator Lucy Worsley presented a BBC film, 'Food in England', The Lost World of Dorothy Hartley, on 6 November 2015. [16] Worsley, writing in The Telegraph, calls Food in England "the definitive history of the way the English eat." She describes the book as "laden with odd facts and folklore ... a curious mixture of cookery, history, anthropology and even magic, ... with her own strong and lively illustrations." She admits it is not a conventional history, since Hartley breaks "the first rule of the historian: to cite her evidence. She wasn't fond of footnotes." In a year of filming Hartley's places and people she knew, Worsley discovered that "my frustration with her technique as historian was misplaced." Hartley had travelled continually to gather materials for her weekly Daily Sketch column, [a] sometimes sleeping rough "in a hedge". The work is thus effectively, Worsley argues, an oral history, as Hartley interviewed "the last generation to have had countryside lives sharing something in common with the Tudors." The emphasis on local, seasonal food chimes well, Worsley suggests, with the modern trend for just those things. [3]

with Margaret M Elliot) (1928). Life and Work of the People of England – Volume II: The fourteenth century. London: Batsford. OCLC 773207276. In this sense, it’s a work of oral history, as Dorothy was talking to the last generation to have had countryside lives sharing something in common with her great hero, the Tudor agricultural writer Thomas Tusser. Sue Quinn is a cookbook author and food writer. Her most recent book, Cocoa: An Exploration of Chocolate, with recipes, is published by Quadrille. She is now writing a biography of Florence White. with Margaret M Elliot) (1925). Life and Work of the People of England – Volume III: The fifteenth century. London: Batsford. OCLC 769297231. Most of Hartley's writing is out of print and only half-remembered, but one of her published works, her magnum opus Food in England, was first published in 1954 and these days is considered to be a masterpiece on the subject of the history of what we ate.

Credits

And it certainly isn’t a conventional history book. I must admit that I’d previously had some reservations about it because it doesn’t have proper references to source material, or footnotes. Infuriatingly, Dorothy breaks the first rule of the historian: to cite evidence. Panayi, Panikos (2010) [2008]. Spicing Up Britain. Reaktion Books. pp. 16, 19, 21. ISBN 978-1-86189-658-2.

McMahon, A. Philip. Review in Parnassus, Volume 4, No. 2, College Art Association, February 1932, pp. 34–35 Hartley's mother was from Froncysyllte, near Llangollen in north Wales, where the family owned quarries and property. In 1933 Hartley moved to a house in Froncysyllte, where she lived for the rest of her life. [2] It was there that she began work on the book for which she is best known, Food in England, with its chapters on kitchens, fuels and fireplaces, meat, poultry, game, eggs, mediaeval feast and famine, fish, fungi, Elizabethan households, the New World, salting, drying, preserving, dairy produce, bread, the Industrial Revolution, and "sundry household matters", all written from the viewpoint of an historian and also a practical and old-fashioned cook. Hartley, Dorothy. Food in England, Macdonald and Jane's, London, 1954; reissued by Little, Brown, 1999, ISBN 1-85605-497-7 Nigel Slater: Life is Sweets: TV chef Nigel Slater looks at his passion for sweets and discovers their history as well as their power to evoke memories of childhood.It was only as I followed Dorothy up and down the country from Yorkshire, to Leicestershire, to Suffolk, to Wales, that I came to appreciate how magnificently eccentric she was. She really did devote her whole life to this completely mad quest of capturing a lost world. And thank goodness she did, because the world needs crazy, passionate people like Dorothy.

Hartley, these days a lost figure and forgotten author, spent her life between the two world wars travelling the length and breadth of the country in search of a rapidly vanishing rural Britain. She had the imagination to document and record, to photograph and illustrate (she was an accomplished artist and photographer as well as writer) the ways of life and the craft skills of farmers, labourers, village craftspeople, and itinerant workers. She recorded the way they worked, the tools they used, the techniques they adopted and the food they produced and prepared. Season with a little chopped parsley, pepper and salt, lemon juice and a mere suspicion of finely chopped shallot. with Margaret M Elliot) (1925). Life and Work of the People of England – Volume I: The eleventh to thirteenth centuries. London: Batsford. OCLC 399655.a b "The Museum of English Rural Life: The Dorothy Hartley Collection". University of Reading . Retrieved 21 April 2016. Despite this, I’d always been a big fan of ‘Food in England’ for its readability and exuberance. Until a year ago, though, I didn’t know much about the woman who wrote it. with Margaret M Elliot) (1928). Life and Work of the People of England – Volume V: The seventeenth century. London: Batsford. OCLC 51078014.

It’s a curious mixture of cookery, history, anthropology, folklore and even magic, illustrated with Dorothy’s own strong, detailed and lively illustrations. It ranges from Saxon cooking to the Industrial Revolution, with chapters on everything from seaweed to salt. The Chef Who Conquered New York: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt: Storyville takes a look at the British celebrity chef who was the youngest to be awarded three stars by the New York Times. Hartley's devotion to archaic recipes such as stargazey pie and posset sometimes comes across as mildly crazed. Marrowbone butter, she says, is excellent for "thin, nervous children". A recent BBC Four documentary on Hartley's life and work presented by Lucy Worsley cast some light on the eccentric pleasures of Food in England, which has been in print continuously for 58 years. As well as being a passionate independent scholar of English history, Hartley was a travel writer, photographer and illustrator ( Food in England is peppered with her characterful drawings of such things as chestnut roasters, butter churns and her grandfather's scarlet egg cosy with a pom-pom "atop"). She seems to have had a quixotic need for solitude and sometimes hung up on friends who telephoned, snapping "I can't talk to you now. I'm in the 14th century!" Hartley, who remained unmarried, died at Fron House, Froncysyllte, aged 92. [5] Books [ edit ] As author [ edit ]As we travelled, I began to realize that my frustration in her technique as historian was misplaced. with Margaret M Elliot) (1931). Life and Work of the People of England – Volume VI: The eighteenth century. London: Batsford. OCLC 250339291. After her secondary education at Loughborough High School Hartley attended Nottingham Art School. During the First World War she temporarily abandoned her studies and worked in a munitions factory. In 1919 she entered the Regent Street Polytechnic in London where she was, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, a prize pupil. She returned to Nottingham Art School as a teacher in 1920–22. She continued to teach, in London and elsewhere, for many years. [2] Historical books [ edit ] a b Wilson, Bee (14 December 2012). "Bee Wilson: rereading Food in England by Dorothy Hartley". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 April 2016.