The Joy of Eating: The Virago Book of Food »

Jill Foulston is a former commissioning editor for the Virago Modern Classics list.

Beatrix Potter wove one of her most malicious tales around the roly-poly pudding. Colette counted the nuts she would pick before falling asleep in the French countryside. Dorothy Wordsworth noted her pie-making sessions in her diary and Anne Frank observed the eating habits of her companions in hiding. Food is a constant in our lives, and it has always been a basic ingredient of women's writing—in household books, cookbooks, diaries, letters, and fiction. In this anthology concentrating on international food writing by women, indulge your appetite with such diverse writers as Edwidge Danticat, Barbara Pym, and J. K. Rowling. Try making Elisabeth Luard's Afghan Betrothal Custard, Martha Washington's marzipan birds, or Nigella Lawson's favorite comfort food. And why not sneak into the literary kitchens of Banana Yoshimoto, Emily Brontë, and Angela Carter?