The Food of Love: an emotional postwar family saga

Written by Prue Leith

Narrated by Anna Parker-Naples

A proud family. Snubbed by aristocratic neighbour Lord Frampton at a coming-of-age ball, Donald Oliver dreams of the day he'll have his vengeance.

A wild daughter. Laura Oliver, beautiful and tempestuous, falls in love with Giovanni, an Italian ex-prisoner-of-war, now a humble cook. Disdaining her father's snobbishness - and his wrath - the couple flee to London.

A desperate hope. Giovanni and Laura arrive to a city that has not yet re-awoken after the traumas of war. Facing destitution, only their love for one another and their dream of opening a restaurant business keeps them going.

From Cotswolds farmland to London fish markets, society ballrooms to icy gutters, this is a tale of prejudice and ambition, power and passion, and one couple's struggle to overcome all obstacles and carve out a life of their own.
(P)2015 WF Howes Ltd

• Language: English
• Publisher: Quercus
• Release date: Sep 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781784295097

Prue Leith

Prue Leith, CBE, was born in 1940 in South Africa, and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, before moving to England in 1960 to study at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School. Over nearly sixty years, Prue Leith has risen to the top of the British food scene. She has seen huge success not only as founder of the renowned Leith’s School of Food and Wine, but also as a caterer, restaurateur, teacher, TV cook, food journalist, novelist, and cookery book author of books such as The Joy of Baking. She’s also been a leading figure in campaigns to improve food in schools, hospitals and in the home, and was made Chancellor of Queen Margaret University in 2017. Well known as a judge on The Great British Menu, she is now a judge on the nation’s favourite TV programme, The Great British Bake Off.

Reviews for The Food of Love

[nicx27 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've enjoyed a couple of Prue Leith's other books so was keen to try this one, the first book in a new trilogy. I think this one is quite different to her others in that it is set mostly during the Second World War and the 1950s. The story is about the Oliver family. Donald is the head, a stubborn and sometimes difficult man; Maud is his long-suffering wife; Laura is his daughter, the apple of his eye; and Hugh and David are his sons. When Laura falls in love with Giovanni, an Italian POW and chef, Donald is not pleased and banishes her from the family home. We follow the various members of the family as they progress through the hard war years and beyond.

In a book written by a chef about a chef and a family of famers there is inevitably quite a lot of references to food and cooking, and I loved this. Rationing plays a big part and how families managed on the meagre portions. Being farmers, we have the Olivers harvesting, making their own butter and cream etc.

This is an excellent family saga. It reminded me a bit of a Lesley Pearse book but without quite so many twists and turns. The characters are well-written and the story kept my interest all the way through. Prue Leith has a really nice writing style and I am looking forward to book two in the trilogy, when we follow Laura and Giovanni's daughter, Angelica, through into the 1960s.