Greedy Queen (eBook)

Annie Gray is an historian, cook, broadcaster and writer specialising in the history of food and dining in Britain from around 1600 to the present day, conducting her research both in libraries and in kitchens. She has worked at Audley End amongst other historical kitchens, and gives lectures all over the country. She presents history documentaries including Victorian Bakers, and appears on BBC Radio 4's The Kitchen Cabinet. She lives in East Anglia.

One of the most fascinating royal biographies I have read ... Culinary biography is a relatively undersubscribed genre, but this biographer and subject show off its great potential ... Gray writes with great authority, verve and confidence

Had me at the first sentence

I love a good historical non-fiction read and the topic of food lends itself so well to this genre. In this beautifully researched book, Annie Gray explains how food culture changed during Victoria's long reign, the difference in diet between the queen and her poorest subjects and even what she ate to cure her of constipation (rhubarb, if you must know.) A fascinating read.

In this wonderfully researched and entertaining book, Gray uncovers a slice of royal history which until now has been completely ignored.

Bursting with original research, The Greedy Queen looks at the monarch from a new perspective, telling the story of British food along the way.

Gray does an excellent job ... This is fascinating material, extracted from the archives by some fine forensic reading.

If we are what we eat, then what was Victoria? This brilliant first book by Annie Gray wastes no time in telling us ... Gray's oeuvre is deeply satisfying ... her tone is lively, her pace jaunty.

'The best - and most popular - rooms in any National Trust property are always the kitchens. It is there, rather than the grand staterooms, that we are able to visualise what life was really like in the past. In The Greedy Queen Annie Gray replicates those kitchens in book form, conjuring up for her readers both the elaborate banquets and the quiet family dinners of Queen Victoria and her household. Never has history seemed quite as delicious as in these pages.'

I'm avid to tuck in.

[A] delicious portrait

Annie Gray is a brilliant writer and scholar who brings a glorious combination of enthusiasm and greed to every subject she tackles. In the field of food history she leads the pack.