The Full English

In this captivating social history, chef and podcaster Lewis Bassett takes us on a journey through England's kitchens, markets, and dining rooms to reveal the hidden forces that have shaped how we eat-and who we are. He shows how the ways we eat in Britain have been shaped by the combined forces of urbanisation, industry, empire and war. This is a story of our national taste as much as it is a story of how we came to be a modern nation. From the bread that built capitalism, to the elite restaurant kitchens of London; and on board the St George, a small boat catching carnivorous sea snails in the English channel, Bassett uncovers the remarkable connections between food and power, class and culture, tradition and change.

Through nine meticulously researched chapters, each centred on a different facet of modern British food - sourdough bread, roast beef, fish, curry, olive oil, sausage rolls, supplements, rewilding and Orwell's fictitious pub - Bassett illuminates the deeper currents of English society: why French cuisine gained prestige, how empire shaped our palate, what food inequality reveals about regional politics, how historic systems of aristocratic landowning impact on our nutrition and why there's now a culture war over oat milk. Working alongside factory bakers and Michelin-starred chefs, interviewing care home workers and landowners, he serves up compelling human stories that bring history to life.

Part culinary adventure, part political analysis, The Bell and the Beehive is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand modern England-and why we eat the way we do.