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Toast

The Story of a Boy's Hunger

Nigel Slater

$24.99

Paperback

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English
Harper Collins
21 December 2004
The Sunday Times Bestseller, and the biggest memoir of the year, from Britain’s best loved food writer.

‘Toast’ is Nigel Slater’s truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. Whether relating his mother’s ritual burning of the toast, his father’s dreaded Boxing Day stew or such culinary highlights of the day as Arctic Roll and Grilled Grapefruit (then considered something of a status symbol in Wolverhampton) this remarkable memoir vividly recreates daily life in sixties surburban England.

His mother was a chops-and-peas sort of cook, exasperated by the highs and lows of a temperamental AGA, a finicky little son and the asthma that was to prove fatal. His father was a honey-and-crumpets man who could occasionally go off ‘crack’ like a gun. When Nigel’s widowed father takes on a housekeeper with social aspirations and a talent in the kitchen, the following years become a heartbreaking cooking contest for his father’s affections. But as he slowly loses the battle, Nigel finds a new outlet for his culinary talents, and we witness the birth of what was to become a lifelong passion for food.

Nigel’s likes and dislikes, aversions and sweet-toothed weaknesses form a fascinating and amusing backdrop to this incredibly moving and deliciously evocative memoir of childhood, adolescence and sexual awakening.

By:  
Imprint:   Harper Collins
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm,  Spine: 16mm
Weight:   180g
ISBN:   9781841154718
ISBN 10:   1841154717
Pages:   256
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Author Website:   http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/nigelslater

Nigel Slater is Britain's top food writer. His hugely popular columns and books have won him an enormous following for his direct, up-to-the-minute and delicious approach to food. He has written six books, has an award-winning column in the Observer and a regular column in Sainsbury's Magazine.

Reviews for Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger

'Acutely observed, poignant and beautifully written...Slater tells his heartbreaking story with great subtlety. The theme of food and love is a fascinating one and I have never seen it better handled.' Daily Telegraph 'He recreates with moving honesty and laugh-out-loud comedy the hopes and fears of boyhood. Remarkable.' Observer ' Toast connects emotions, memory and taste buds. Genius.' Lynne Truss, Sunday Times 'A talent for prose as simple and pleasurable as his recipes.' Sunday Telegraph 'Exquisitely written...You read this remarkable memoir partly cringing, partly marvelling at Slater's hallucinogenic retrieval of times past. He is the Proust of the Nesquik era.' Independent 'It achieves a remarkable freshness...[and] reveals a gift for doleful, Alan Bennett-like comedy.' Guardian `This touching memoir proves [Slater] is more than a cookery writer. Its emotional impact will touch a chord with many.' Sunday Mirror `Wonderful, precise...extraordinary.' Matthew Fort `It's bitter-sweet, it's a book to be consumed in a single sitting, a book that slips down really nicely. However you want to put it, Toast is delicious.' The Oldie


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