English Food, a People's History with Diane Purkiss

<p>Neil’s guest is Diane Purkiss and they talk about just some of the topics covered in her book <em>English Food a People’s History</em> published by William Collins. Diane is Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, and she has written about such topics as the English Civil War, the supernatural, especially witchcraft; folklore and fairytales; writer’s block and of course food and food history.</p><p>They had a rather meandering conversation that covered: bread, and its poor reputation compared to that bake in France; coffeehouses and politics, and coffeehouses as early examples of gay bars; tea and Empire; and foraging – the latter being particularly tricky to get at.</p><p><br></p><p>£3 subscribers can hear the full interview with Diane on the Easter Eggs page of the website: <a href="http://britishfoodhistory.com/easter-eggs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://britishfoodhistory.com/easter-eggs/</a></p><p><br></p><p>Diane’s book <em>English Food: a People’s History</em> available here: <a href="https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/english-food-a-peoples-history-diane-purkiss?variant=39825973411918" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/english-food-a-peoples-history-diane-purkiss?variant=39825973411918</a></p><p><br></p><p>Neil’s blog post about dock pudding (with recipe): <a href="http://britishfoodhistory.com/2023/05/26/dock-pudding/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://britishfoodhistory.com/2023/05/26/dock-pudding/</a></p><p><br></p><p><u>Other bits:</u></p><p>The Elizabeth Raffald Manchester Central Library event at 6pm on 13 September: <a href="https://librarylive.co.uk/event/elizabeth-raffald-englands-most-influential-housekeeper/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://librarylive.co.uk/event/elizabeth-raffald-englands-most-influential-housekeeper/</a></p><p><br></p><p>Neil will be speaking at the Ludlow Food Festival on Sunday 10 September at 2.30pm, talking all things Elizabeth Raffald: <a href="https://www