Leftovers

Bingeable The Telegraph A book for our time The Spectator [Barnetts] an indefatigable researcher The Mail on Sunday A 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.