Off the shelf
THE LANGUAGE OF FOOD
ANNABEL ABBS, SIMON & SCHUSTER, $32.99
London-based historic fiction author Annabel Abbs turns her attention to the pioneering cookery book writer, Eliza Acton and the handful of facts that are known about Miss Acton and her assistant, Ann Kirby. Miss Acton was an aspiring poet, but when she took her manuscript to publisher Thomas Longman, she was advised to produce a work more appropriate for a lady, in other words a cookbook. Ignoring the mere detail that Miss Acton was not much of a cook, she and Ann collaborated to create Modern Cookery for
