24 Oct 2012 02:50:10
Hartley was a travel writer, illustrator and cook best known today for her classic Food in England, which has remained in print since its publication in 1954. Much of the material first appeared in her weekly columns for the Daily Sketch from 1933 to 1936 and 65 of these, together with some of the author's evocative photos, have been collected in this book. Adrian Bailey's excellent introduction describes her as "a remarkable, unstoppable source of creative energy" and recalls how she once answered the phone with "I can't talk to you now. I'm in the 14th century!" From clogs to Wensleydale cheese ("the most thoroughly English cheese"), these pieces reveal her passion for English history, rural crafts and food. She describes meeting an old woman in sand dunes by the sea, cutting marram grass, "gray as dreams and strong as a promise given". The woman tells her that once the whole village had taken part, but now "the lads had all gone abroad, the girls had gone into factories". Hartley captures a rural way of life that was already dying when she was writing.
