The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton
by Kathryn Hughes
A very well researched biography, full of a lot of surprising things. It’s not known for instance, that Mrs Beeton probably died of syphilis, because her husband Sam was a philanderer… The whole nation has this picture of Mrs Beeton as being a rather portly lady with a pinny and flour on her hands, when in fact she was a young woman in her mid-20s when she started that book, with no real practical experience of cookery. The book is a very good read and has been put together by a scholar who really knows her subject.
