Not Swindled

I am branching out today to become a book reviewer.  Why, you might ask, am I not writing this on Amazon, with a proper "bookish" audience?  Well, it's because my other love, apart from food, is reading.  Anything which combines food and reading in my mind is good, and therefore books can make an occasional guest appearance on the blog!

Anyway, on to this book.  Bee Wilson is a food journalist for the Daily Telegraph and this shines through in her book "Swindled: From Poisoned Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee - the Dark Secrets of the Food Cheats".  She bounds through food cheating from the 1820s to the present day, mainly across the UK and USA showing how food has been adulterated through the ages and the effects this has had on the consumer.  From death in the form of arsenic sweets, and the lengths people went to to make false tea, to today's fear of carcinogens and transfats.  It's a really charming book - despite being full of death and corruption! What's really interesting are the character profiles of those brave souls who tried to change the world of food and who aimed for food in it's purest possible form. This helps add depth to a subject that could easily become a list of dates, adulterated foods, and laws.  I loved this book and was so disappointed when I reached the last chapter, knowing it had to end!  And look at the sweet front cover - how couldn't you love the vintage images on it?!

On one final note, I hope everyone had a fabulous chocolate filled Easter and I will be back writing up recipes in my next post!