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Cheesemonger's History of the British Isles Paperback – September 28, 2021

by Ned Palmer (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 662 ratings
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The Top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller. For history nerds and food lovers, the curious and the hungry, an entertaining journey stretching across the British Isles. Packed with the story of British cheese from an expert storyteller and master cheesemonger.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    384 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    IPS - Profile Books
  4. Publication date
    September 28, 2021
  5. Dimensions
    4.9 x 1.2 x 7.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1788161173
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1788161176
  8. See all details
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  1. Cheesemonger's Compendium of British & Irish Cheese
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A delightful and informative romp through centuries of British cheesemaking ... it would make a fine Christmas present, along with a wedge of Sparkenhoe red leicester" - GUARDIAN
"Palmer writes with pace and passion, and his encounters with modern-day practitioners fizz with infectious delight ... Full of flavour" - SUNDAY TIMES
"Part history, part travelogue and part tasting menu ... an utter delight, rousing, infectiously impassioned and inspiring" - THE SPECTATOR

About the Author

Ned Palmer runs the Cheese Tasting Company, whose unique events pair cheese with wines, beers, whiskies and history. After studying philosophy, theatre and experimental psychology, he worked as a jazz pianist and hospital porter, before helping out on a stall at Borough Market in South London led him into a life of cheesemongering.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ IPS - Profile Books (September 28, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1788161173
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1788161176
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.9 x 1.2 x 7.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 662 ratings

About the author

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Ned Palmer

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
662 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

TillyB4
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for teens who like to cook
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2020
Verified Purchase
This is a great book for teenagers who like to cook. It doesn't take long to get interested in it, and the chapters are short enough that it works as a great non-tech distraction. Definitely a good choice.
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Ruskin Tomatoes
5.0 out of 5 stars Your guide to cheese in Great Britain
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2020
Verified Purchase
I plan to take notes so the next time I go to Great Britain I am an educated cheese consumer. This is an engaging read that delves into history and geography, as well as vividly describing the variety of cheeses available.
2 people found this helpful
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John Karren
5.0 out of 5 stars British cheese lovers and historians will appreciate this book
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2020
Verified Purchase
Fun read and is more like a novel. I would’ve liked more colored photos of the cheeses and a table of the cheeses in the back that highlights the various characteristics of each one. Worth the purchase
3 people found this helpful
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Lee A
5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining read
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2020
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This is the first book of this type that I could just set back and read clear till the end really enjoyable
2 people found this helpful
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Jamie
5.0 out of 5 stars The Cheese Stands Alone
Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2022
Great guide to history and cheese, propelling me to return visit to Cheesetique in Alexandria, VA, where I once mongered.
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Top reviews from other countries

Nigel Melville
5.0 out of 5 stars Tasty !
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2021
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The first thing you learn from this book is that making cheese is pure magic. Take liquid from goats, sheep or cows, apply “the three classic ways of preserving food – pickling, drying and salting” and out comes solid material in an endless variety of forms and tastes. So, how does the magic work ? Here's one answer, from the maker of Stichelton - “You can come to my dairy, take pictures, take notes, copy everything you like. You won't know how to make my cheese. I don't know how I make my cheese.” Or, take Lanark Blue – made exactly as Roquefort is made, but is an ivory-coloured cheese, while the French cheese is pure white. The maker of Lanark Blue thinks that's down, not to different types of grass, but to the soil in which the grass grows. I could go on, and the book offers plenty of suggestions, but no firm answers.

Why a “history” ? Surely cheese is not the stuff of history ? Ned Palmer would convince you otherwise. Starting from milk fat deposits on potsherds made around 6500 BC, he suggests that “cheese was, at its onset, a way of making milk digestible to humans” when bacteria converted indigestible lactose into lactic acid. A series of accidents brought about the varieties of cheese we know today, and a series of unconnected events, from the international monastic community to the Civil War, the growth of turnpike roads, the arrival of the railways and the impact of the Milk Marketing Board, are cheerfully presented through the prism of the cheesemonger's craft.

Each chapter links the history of a period to a specific cheese, so that the chapter on the Romans describes the cheese moulds found by archaeologists in Roman villas, then points out how the first-century writer Columella's cheesemaking methods are used today by Anne Wigmore to produce her Spenwood and Wigmore cheeses - which reminds me how many artisan cheesemakers come to their craft from quite different worlds – Anne Wigmore was a microbiologist, but others came from civil engineering, philosophy, and archaeology. Perhaps that is why artisan cheeses are so varied ?

Back to the history, though – it might be contrived, but there are plenty of quirky stories to take your mind into the world beyond the dairy. Did you know that the word “dairy” comes from the monastic term “deye” or female servant ? Or that there was a cheese war in 1766, when Nottingham locals stopped consignments of cheese being shipped out of town, and the war only ended when the dragoons were called in and the trials and transportations began. Echoes of the cheese war even surfaced in the army camp at Upwey in 1914 when a sergeant removed cheese from the rations list - “one soldier was shot and another injured when he was struck from behind with a fifteen-pound block of cheese.”

The book ends with a gazetteer of artisan cheesemakers. It ought to come with a hamper of the cheeses he so lovingly describes.
(This review was originally published in the Chesil Magazine, Dorset)
5 people found this helpful
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Rusu21
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for cheese lovers and/or history buffs
Reviewed in Germany on November 15, 2019
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A fantastic mix of history, cheese, personal quirky anecdotes and fun. Think of it as the Bill Bryson of cheese books. A perfect Christmas gift for cheese lovers, history buffs and anyone who just loves a fun read.
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Justin Tunstall
5.0 out of 5 stars Myths and Legends of Turophilia
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 2, 2020
Verified Purchase
Have you heard the one about Henry the Eighth and the washed-rind cheeses? How about the shepherd boy dallying with his young love in a cave, together with a bag of cheese?

Most cheese-lovers amass a bunch of stories about the object of their passion, some demonstrably true, some a mite whimsical, perhaps. Stories of Henry the Eighth are far more memorable than a scientific explanation of the effect of B. Linens on a cheese.

How do we learn these stories? In my case I went on a bunch of cheese courses and read a lot. A LOT. I’m sure we’ve all been asked time and time again which cheese is our favourite. For a cheesemonger an interesting question might be to ask their favourite cheese book. Mine? At times, it’s been books by Pierre Androuet, Juliet Harbutt, Patricia Michaelson or latterly Bronwen Percival. My current fave book on cheese is Ned Palmer’s A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles.

Ned now runs the Cheese Tasting Company, but was at Neal’s Yard Dairy for seven years or so – and knows his stuff. He’s made cheese with a large number of UK makers and uses their cheeses to illustrate how the making of cheese in these isles has developed over the last six thousand years. Along the way, we learn of the impact of human migration, the cheeses enjoyed by the builders of Stonehenge and the dietary results of conquests by the Romans and Normans. He looks at how the Industrial Revolution impacted the cheese business, with canals, and later, trains bringing dairy produce from distant farms to the growing cities. For me, the most valuable part of the book lies in the last chapters, where he looks at the regeneration of British cheese following the Second World War and the knock-out blow landed by rationing. Thankfully British cheese got back up again, and most of us can now enjoy a huge variety of high-quality cheeses, whether creamery or farmhouse made. Ned talks about the people who were instrumental in the renaissance of our cheeses and looks at the impact of Rance, Randolph, Harbutt, Dyas and others. The current diversity of British cheese is celebrated in the chapter entitled Post Modern Cheeses: Let a Thousand Cheeses Bloom. The book concludes with a brief directory of ‘some favourite cheeses’.

The best music books should make one want to hear the tunes being written about. This book made me salivate for some cheeses that I don’t yet know.

A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles makes a great supplementary purchase for those who have Juliet Harbutt’s or Patricia Michaelson’s authoritative works.
11 people found this helpful
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westmer
4.0 out of 5 stars Standing up for cheeses!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 17, 2019
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This deserves to be in the stocking this Christmas of every lover of good food and cheese in particular. Palmer writes with wit and passion, considerable knowledge and the benefit of a subtle palate.
Nine tenths of the book is excellent; it falls to bits in the final chapter where he tries in a rush to do justice to the extraordinary wealth of the current British cheese culture. Interestingly this is also where his editor (the estimable Mark Ellingham) also seems to have run out of energy or time. There are some gross editing errors.
But by then the reader will have been well enough entertained to do his/her own research at the nearest fine cheese mongers!
8 people found this helpful
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enthusiast
5.0 out of 5 stars Just need the cheese to go with it
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2019
Verified Purchase
Only one complaint. The cheeses didn't come with the book. Well written, mouth wateringly so. Familiar with several of the cheeses and must go in pursuit of the Caerphilly produced not far away. but I discover it is now made in Somerset!!!!!!!!!!!!!It is a Christmas present for my son; so to compensate him for obvious signs of pre-reading I must attch some cheese.
If you like cheese then this is your book.
20 people found this helpful
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