JBCC4 Archives - Duckworth Books

Bread and War

‘Stories of kindness, bravery and love shine from these pages’ Nigel Slater

‘A brave, necessary account of resilience and skill and the power of bread and connection’ Olia Hercules

How do you source, cook and take joy in food in the midst of war and loss?

Food is a weapon, a lifeline, a means of survival. Ukrainian food is also a powerful symbol of national identity and independence. This is a journey through mine-ridden, wrecked villages, repeatedly bombed cities, family kitchens and precarious small bakeries and cafes. Along the way news journalist and food writer Felicity Spector shares meals with soldiers, travels supply lines with volunteers and is fed incredible food by army cooks, fine bakers and home-cooking heroes.

The extraordinary stories of just some of those people – refugees and restaurateurs – trying to rebuild lives and kitchens after years of bombing, shows a very Ukrainian determination to provide good food for a besieged people.

My Life in France

When Julia Child arrived in Paris in 1948, ‘a six-foot-two-inch, thirty-six-year-old, rather loud and unserious Californian’, she barely spoke a word of French and didn’t know the first thing about cooking.

As she fell in love with French culture – buying food at local markets, sampling the local bistros, and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu – her life began to change forever. We follow her extraordinary transformation from kitchen ingénue to internationally renowned (and internationally loved) expert in French cuisine.

Bursting with Child’s adventurous and humorous spirit, My Life in France captures post-war Paris with wonderful vividness and charm.

Ingredients

Cheese puffs. Coffee. Sunscreen. Vapes. Hand sanitiser. George Zaidan reveals the weird science behind everyday items that may or may not kill you, depending on whom you ask.

If you want easy answers, this book is not for you. But if you’re curious which health studies to trust, what dense scientific jargon really means, and how to make better choices when it comes to food and health – dive right in!

Zaidan makes chemistry more fun than potions class as he reveals exactly what science can (and can’t) tell us about the packaged ingredients we buy in the supermarket. He demystifies the ingredients of life and death – and explains how we know whether something is good or bad for you – in exquisite, hilarious detail at breakneck speed.

Sugar

Sugar was once the most powerful commodity on earth. It shaped world affairs, influenced the economic policies of nations, drove international trade and left a legacy of suffering that still resonates today. But how did a substance that began as an expensive luxury of the wealthy become a staple in the modern world?

In Sugar this dark history is unveiled, from the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade to the environmental devastation caused by sugar cultivation. Richly detailed and thoroughly compelling, Elizabeth Abbott traces sugar from its very origins to the twenty-first century, examining the true cost of satisfying the world’s sweet tooth.

Eat, Pray Love in Rome

Experience the Rome that changed and inspired Elizabeth Gilbert to write the international bestseller Eat, Pray, Love. When Luca Spaghetti (yes, that’s really his name) was asked to show Elizabeth around Rome he had no idea how his life was about to change. She embraced his Roman zest for life and Luca in-turn became her guardian angel, determined that his city would get her out of her funk.

Filled with colourful anecdotes about food, language, soccer, life in Rome, and culminating with the episodes in Liz’s bestselling memoir told from Luca’s side of the table, this is a book that every traveller to Rome will find enriching and readers of Eat, Pray, Love will not want to miss.

Order, Order!

Britain’s first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, smuggled wine up the Thames with the help of the Navy. Tony Blair confessed that a stiff drink and half a bottle of wine a night had become a helpful crutch while in office. Joseph Stalin flushed out traitors with vodka. The disintegration of Richard Nixon and Boris Yeltsin was largely down to drink. Winston Churchill was famous for his drinking, often taking a whisky and soda first thing in the morning and champagne ritually with dinner.

But why did these politicians drink and what was their tipple of choice? How did drinking shape the decisions they made? Ben Wright, political correspondent for the BBC, explores the history of alcohol within politics, from the debauched drinking practices of eighteenth-century ministers to today, often based on his own experiences supping with politicians in Westminster bars.

With exclusive interviews and in-depth research, Order, Order! uses alcohol as a lens through which to meet a remarkable cast of politicians, to understand their times and discover what drove them to drink. A story of boozy bon viveurs – but with many casualties too – and the complexity of the human condition and the pull of the bottle.

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