Booklist

Author of the Month: M.F.K. Fisher

Selected by the Bookshop


Our Author of the Month for June is the American food writer M.F.K Fisher. The wit and warmth of her writing is infectious, and belies, or perhaps arises from, a fierce and deeply humane intelligence. She has been described, by Simon Schama, as ‘the greatest food writer who has ever lived’ and W.H. Auden once remarked of her ‘I do not know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose.’

Several of her best books (there were an impressive 27 in total) have been brought back into print by Daunt Books. Start with The Gastronomical Me, an often hilarious account that traces her food memories from early childhood to her discovery of French food, and French ways of thinking about food, in Dijon in the 1930s.

From the publisher:
A classic of gastronomic writing that redefined the genre, The Gastronomical Me is a memoir of travel, love and loss, but above all hunger.Beginning with her first food memory – the greyish-pink fuzz of her…

From the publisher:
‘Since we must eat to live, we might as well do it with both grace and gusto.’Written in 1942 to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf has continued to rally readers and cooks…

From the publisher:
‘I was a brash newcomer to it, and yet when I first felt the rhythm of its streets and smelled its ancient smells, I said, “Of course,” for I was once more in my own place, an  invader of what was already…

From the publisher:
‘An oyster leads a dreadful but exciting life.’The celebrated American food writer M. F. K. Fisher pays tribute to that most delicate and enigmatic of foods: the oyster. She tells of oysters found in stews and soups, roasted,…

From the publisher:
Ruth Reichl - 'Mary Frances [Fisher] has the extraordinary ability to make the ordinary seem rich and wonderful. Her dignity comes from her absolute insistence on appreciating life as it comes to her'. Julia Child - 'How wonderful to have…

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