And with England about to crown a new king, it tells the story of how this conservative nation was radicalised in the 17th Century and how it came to be that a republic was established and a king executed more than 100 years before the great revolutions in France and America. Where I live, we have issues growing wheat due to the climate. We have a local type of barley called ‘bere’ which is very hardy but quite rough. You can cook with it, but better to bake those flat scone-like breads. The Food Programme, Beans Part 1: Are Legumes the Answer. Presented by Sheila Dillon produced by Natalie Donovan

The vicar in the village tells you that the dead that remain in the earth are those condemned to hell. Some people say that the dead riders are wreathed in flames, and their saddles are red-hot iron. Those people say that if you do get any power from the riders, it’s the power of hell and devils. Diane’s book English Food: a People’s History available here: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/english-food-a-peoples-history-diane-purkiss?variant=39825973411918This is one of two books that really changed my approach to the whole subject of food. Because most books about the history of food focus on what the rich eat—just like most histories of fashion focus on that tiny one percent of society. And that’s fine, if you recognise that it’s all a daydream. But it doesn’t give you a good holistic picture of what the past was actually like.

In general, the technique for this is good. She's gone through a lot of primary sources, and found ones with fairly consistent records for an extended period of time, and used them to generate narratives at the personal level, with lots of extensive quotes. There's a lot of contextualization around this, and it pays off. Clip of Philip Harben demonstrating boiling techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj-tapF1kgU Established in 1954, QMP was set up in association with milk producers throughout the country to market and promote their new brand, Gold Top. At the trial, those who submitted written complaints will take the stand and give their evidence aloud and under oath. You, as the accused, will also take the stand and your confession will be read aloud. If you like, you can add to it, or deny that you said bits of it, but that might just make you look inconsistent. After that, the jury will decide on your guilt. Lakeland’s buyers are constantly searching the world for ground-breaking innovations and ideas to add to their carefully curated range of can’t-live without products, always working closely with their customers to ensure they have everything they need to create delicious, healthy meals at home as well as inspiring them with handy time-saving ideas that make life just that little bit easier.Sacla’ started life in 1939 when Secondo and Piera Ercole set up a small family business preparing and preserving the bounty of fruit and vegetables grown around Asti in Italy’s north-west region of Piedmont. Three generations later, and still family run, we have evolved into one of the most passionate and progressive pioneers of Italian food. In 1990, we introduced Pesto to the British shopper and a love affair with all things Italian began… As one delves into the book, they may feel as if they are entering a labyrinth of historical events and figures, but fear not! The author is a masterful guide, providing a clear and steady hand to lead the reader through the twists and turns. The first-hand accounts interwoven throughout the book bring a human touch to the history, making the events come alive and leaving the reader with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the complexities of the war. That’s very interesting. Because so much of the identity of France, at least to an outsider, seems to be tied up in the boulangerie. A rich and indulgent history, English Food will change the way you view your food and understand your past. The Oxford Literary Festival has in my mind become the leading literary festival of the year. The organisation, the roster of speakers, the ambience and the sheer quality of it all is superb. May it now go from strength to strength each year stretching its ambition more and more. I believe it will.

I find the narrowness of individual ‘subjects’ defeating. You bring more to reading poetry, I think, if you have a strong sense of what they are likely to have had for dinner. We mustn’t underestimate the shaping power of what we eat. I’ve been doing some work recently on the English at sea, and thinking about scurvy. The effects of scurvy on the mindset of entire naval armadas is almost impossible to overestimate. That’s the remarkable thing. People were literally dying in droves of a disease that nobody fully understood right up to polar exploration. He is also talking at Chelsea History Festival on Friday 29 September 2023, at 6pm about the history of sugar: https://chelseahistoryfestival.com/events/dark-history-sugar/Kevin’s Food and Foodways paper: https://napier-repository.worktribe.com/output/3133885/accompanying-the-series-early-british-television-cookbooks-1946-1976 One such figure was peculiar to the western Alps. She was the female embodiment of winter, a female figure often called Bertha or Perchta or Befuna. She punished social disobedience and rewarded ‘goodness’. She was always portrayed as an old hag, because she represented cold and winter. It did not take long for intellectuals to note her resemblance to the witches with whom they were familiar from classical literature. It happened through other projects. Firstly, through the work I’ve done on witchcraft. Secondly, through the work I did on the English Civil War. Both of those projects were about trying to get beyond the intellectual history-type position, where the Civil War was caused by people having a rational response to autocracy, and witchcraft trials were caused by people not being sufficiently post- Enlightenment.