Can you have your cake and eat it? Do you have bigger fish to fry?

Are you seduced by food imagery in literature, and lured into rash purchases by the purple prose of food packaging?

This, then, is the programme for you!

Sheila Dillon is joined by author, poet and presenter of Radio 4's 'Word of Mouth', Michael Rosen, to discuss the origins and impacts of food language: from the everyday idioms that hark back to ancient dietary habits, to the seductive language of advertising.

Exploring food language in various forms, they hear from Dan Jurafsky, a professor of linguistics and computer science at Stanford University and author of ‘The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu’; Melissa Thompson, a food and drink writer who runs the recipe sharing project Fowl Mouths, and advocates for the promotion of black and minority ethnic voices in the food industry; and Dinah Fried, author of ‘Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature’s Most Memorable Meals’.

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced by Lucy Taylor in Bristol



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The literary excerpts featured in this programme are from:

- Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen (from his YouTube channel)
- Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams
- Hot Food by Michael Rosen