Consuming Passions: A History of English Food and Appetite

In this age of convenience food, one may look back on the past with envy. The luxury of the Romans, for whom eating and sex (often conducted simultaneously) allayed life's boredom; the sumptuous variety of the Middle Ages; the glittering dining tables of wealthy Victorians and Edwardians: was their cuisine really better, or simply more self-indulgent? In Consuming Passions, Philippa Pullar gives us an absorbing and often hilarious history of English appetite. From Roman orgies to Puritanism, from the great class divide of the 19th century to the egalitarian seventies, she explores English eating habits in all their diversity, demonstrating the surprising parallels between food, religion, and sex. Originally published in 1970, Consuming Passions now features a new afterword by acclaimed food writer Paul Levy, bringing the story right up the 21st century.