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The Well-Kept Kitchen
The Well-Kept Kitchen
Nov 18, 2024 10:41 AM

Author:Gervase Markham

The Well-Kept Kitchen

In 1615 the poet and writer Gervase Markham published an extraordinary handbook for housewives, containing advice on everything from planting herbs to brewing beer, feeding animals to distilling perfume, with recipes for a variety of dishes such as trifle, pancakes and salads (not to mention some amusingly tart words on how the ideal wife should behave). Aimed at middle-class women who would share in household tasks with their servants in the kitchen, this companionable and opinionated book offers a richly enjoyable glimpse of the way we lived, worked and ate 400 years ago.

Reviews

At £5.99 it might turn out to be the most cost effective book you'll ever buy

—— Daily Record

All hail the new decluttering queen Marie Kondo, whose mess-busting bestseller has prompted a craze for tidying in homes across the world ... one proper clear out is all you need for the rest of your life.

—— Good Housekeeping

Do I love it? If not, chuck it. Marie Kondo promises that by following her KonMari Method I will be a neatnik, forever ... I decide The Life-changing Magic of Tidying will become my bible.

—— Brigid Moss , Red magazine

[It is] enough to salute Kondo for her recognition of something quietly profound: that mess is often about unhappiness, and that the right kind of tidying can be a kind of psychotherapy for the home as well as for the people in it.

—— The Times

The tidiness regimen prescribed by Japanese author Marie Kondo is a great idea. It’s so great that maybe we need to expand its reach

—— Guardian

Hoarders need to read Stuff Happens! Her no-nonsense approach will help you see the wood from the trees, or at least, rediscover your long-hidden bedroom floor

—— Irish Country Magazine

I love it. There is so much in this book. It really is a brilliant book - full of genuinely useful things

—— Louise McSharry

I started doing a bit of surgical decluttering - like one of those drawers where you have everything: go off and just sort it out - and actually it's quite an absorbing and peaceful thing to do . . . such a sense of achievement and completion

—— Brendan O'Connor

The thinking woman’s Instagram go-to for essential tips on all sorts of useful home advice, Laura De Barra’s taught us more than we ever knew we needed to know about how to properly clean a dishwasher filter, fix a faulty window lock and get stubborn marks off bathroom tiles. Hint: they’ll come off. They always come off.

—— Houseandhome.ie

Who knew that watching someone descale a dishwasher could be compelling viewing?

—— Image

Accompanied by Laura's beautiful illustrations and her resident humour, it's a useful handbook to get you through any household emergency

—— Image Interiors & Living

A fluent and authoritative account of Europe since the Second World War

—— Literary Review

An insightful analysis of the transformation of central and eastern Europe in the decades between the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

—— Guardian

Garton Ash is a clear-headed chronicler of the Continent [and] Homelands is an engaging read

—— Irish Times

An authoritative big picture well matched with revealing, important human details

—— The Tablet

Timothy Garton Ash tells the epic story of ... [postwar] Europe

—— Irish Times

Excellent ... Read as a letter, such gemlike vignettes can be treasured. Because in them, Garton Ash has captured something of what it means to be European. Though he is proudly in love with Europe, he is not blind to its faults

—— Washington Examiner

Part memoir, part history and is fascinating, rich in anecdote, and at times intensely moving

—— The Times, *Summer Reads of 2023*

A panoramic contemporary history of Europe, in which sharp political analysis is enlivened with personal memoir — drawn from decades of distinguished work as a journalist and academic

—— Financial Times, *Books of the Year*
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