Author: Barnett, Eleanor
History: specific events & topics
Published on 6 March 2025 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (Apollo) in the United Kingdom.
Paperback | 352 pages
197 x 130 x 28 | 288g
‘Bingeable’ – The Telegraph‘A book for our time’ – The Spectator‘[Barnett’s] an indefatigable researcher’ – The Mail on SundayA richly entertaining and topical history of food preservation and waste in Britain from the Elizabethan kitchen to the present day.
At a time when a third of the food we produce globally is wasted, Eleanor Barnett opens a window on the everyday experiences of ordinary people in the past to reveal how factors such as religion, class and gender have historically shaped attitudes towards food waste.
Leftovers deploys a wide historical lens to link the many ingenious ways in which our ancestors sought to extend the life of food – encompassing Tudor household management, Victorian public health initiatives and two World Wars – to such contemporary anxieties as climate change, globalisation, scientific advancement, poverty and inequality.