An Appetite for Violets by Martine Bailey

Biddy is also typical of a new breed of women cookery book writers who were emerging as entrepreneurs and understood what the new middle classes wanted. I really hate it when historical heroines have completely 21st-century attitudes, but the records show that servants ‘aped their betters’ and were often ‘pert’ or ‘saucy’. Did you consciously set out to create a strong female protagonist? Other favourites are Soul Cakes, eaten to appease the dead on All Hallows’ Eve as part of a very ancient tradition.īiddy seems to be an early feminist icon she is a servant so is limited by her station, but she is daring, clever and capable, and she has the courage to follow her dreams.

I’ve made dishes I write about, such as Taffety Tart, a pastry with apples and quince that was once more popular than apple pie. I contacted TV food historian Ivan Day and went to his Cumbrian farm where he makes amazing sugarwork, cooks on a fire and recreates intricate pies, sweets and jellies. Initially, I gathered lots of recipes but didn’t know how to make them. Also, Biddy lives and breathes food, so I collected lots of slang, proverbs and culinary terms to create her world. I remembered how my granddad used to joke in the language of his youth, all ‘lass’ and ‘thou and thee’, a rhythmic, poetic sort of burr. How did you research her? Can you tell us about how you learnt to cook 18th-century food?īiddy only really sprang to life when I gave her my own childhood Lancastrian accent. She is married with one son.Biddy is such a likeable character and the language she uses so colourful and convincing. In 2012 she had a Creative Arts Scholarship at Muriwai Earthskin near Auckland. Martine lives in Cheshire, England and Auckland, New Zealand. The Grown-Up Gap Year Diaries (2008) charted a round-the-world trip that included her mother’s birthplace, Java, Indonesia, and encounters with tribal groups on Flores and Sulawesi. Writing as Laura Bloom, she published The Wedding Diaries (2004), a bridal bestseller about the planning and celebration of her marriage.

In pursuit of authenticity, she has studied with food historian Ivan Day and experienced Georgian food and fashion at first-hand with an historic re-enactment society. As an amateur cook, Martine won the Merchant Gourmet Recipe Challenge and was a former UK Dessert Champion, cooking at Le Meurice in Paris. A life-long cooking enthusiast, Martine Bailey wrote An Appetite For Violets, a historical suspense novel inspired by eighteenth-century household books of recipes.

An Appetite for Violets by Martine Bailey