Kathryn Hughes' best work is this marvellous biography of the legendary Mrs Beeton, whose comfortable, matronly image never fades but who was just 21, with only six months' experience of running a house, when she began her Book of Household Management. Her culinary reputation has never diminished, kept alive by her publishers and her insatiable readers, and thanks to this biography we now know what superhuman energy produced such a work, as she struggled with every kind of trouble in her personal life.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 98 Autumn 2020 ) |
