Authors
Mrs Beeton -
Gordon Biddle -
Frances Bissell -
Douglas Botting -
Asa Briggs -
Michelle Burriedale-Johnson -
Alexandra Carlier -
Jacques Constant -
Brigadier John Faviell -
Harry Graham -
Kate Greenaway -
Frederic V. Grunfeld -
Robin Guild -
Jan den Hengst -
Katharine Hepburn -
Robin Hunter -
Tim Jepson -
Brendan Lehane -
O. S. Nock -
Richard Olney -
Elizabeth Poston -
Jack Simmons -
Aline Waites -
Malcolm Williamson -
Mrs Beeton
author of The Shorter Mrs Beeton
Mrs. Beeton is an institution. More than a hundred years after The
Book of Household Management first appeared, early editions of her great
original are still in print. The Shorter Mrs Beeton, published by Sheldrake
Press, is based closely on the first and second editions
and reveals Isabella Beeton in her original youth and freshness.
Mrs Beeton was born Isabella Mary Mayson in 1836. She married the publisher
Samuel Orchart Beeton when she was 20, and it was at his suggestion that she
began collecting recipes for a book on household management. As she put the
finishing touches to four years' work, which included testing all the recipes
in the kitchen of the Beeton house in Pinner, she confessed: 'If I had known,
beforehand, that this book would cost me the labour it has, I should never
have been courageous enough to attempt it.'
Gordon Biddle
co-author of The Railway Heritage of Britain
Gordon Biddle is a past President of the Railway and Canal Historical Society and a leading authority on railway architecture in Britain. He is the author
of Victorian Stations, The British Railway Station (with Jeoffry Spence),
Railway Stations in the North West and Great Railway Stations of Britain: Their Architecture, Growth and Development as well as three volumes on canals
and waterways.
Frances Bissell
author of Ten Dinner Parties for Two
Frances Bissell made a dramatic entrance in the world of cookery when, in 1983,
she entered and won an Observer competition for the best dinner party
menu to accompany Mouton Cadet wines. The contest brought her immediate recognition
and, at the suggestion of Jane Grigson, she used the personal food diaries
she had kept for over a decade as material for A Cook's Calendar, published
in 1985 by Chatto & Windus. A further book, The Pleasures of Cookery,
epitomises in its title the approach to food that has made Frances Bissell such
a popular author.
Apart from her regular columns in The Times, Homes and Gardens, and
A La Carte, Frances has also written for many publications including The
Sunday Times and Harpers and Queen.
A yorkshirewoman by birth, Frances Bissell now lives in north London with her husband Tom, a wine writer.
Douglas Botting
author of
Wild Britain: a Traveller's Guide
general Editor for the Wild Series
Douglas Botting was born in London and educated at Oxford. He is a writer
and photographer who has travelled on numerous scientific and filming expeditions
to wildernesses around the world. He has made three journeys through the Amazon basin,
once as official photographer for the Royal Geographical Society Expedition to
the Mato Grosso. He has journeyed across East Africa in a balloon to observe
and photograph the great game herds and led two expeditions to the little-known
Arabian island of Socotra. He was one of the first Westerners in modern times to
venture across Arctic Siberia and, as a member of the European Conservation
Project 'Operation Seashore', he circumnavigated the 6,000-mile coast of the British
mainland twice on assignment for the BBC and The Times.
Douglas Botting has made many documentary films for television, including
the BBC World About Us series, and has worked on assignment for Time-Life
, The Geographical Magazine and national newspapers. His books include
works of reportage and travel, amongst them One Chilly Siberian Morning, Wilderness Europe and Rio de
Janeiro, as well as biographies of the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt,
the naturalist Gavin Maxwell, author of Ring of Bright Water, and most recently
Gerald Durrell, the conservationist and author of My family and Other Animals.
Asa Briggs
author of The Power of Steam
and A Victorian Portrait
Asa Briggs was born at Keighley, Yorkshire, in 1921 and took his first degrees
in history and economics. In the course of a distinguished career as a historian, he has been Professor of Modern History at Leeds University (1955-61) and Professor
of History at the University of Sussex, where he was Vice-Chancellor from 1967 to 1976.
His main field of interest is the social and cultural history of the 19th and 20th
centuries, on which he has written many books, including The Age of Improvement,
Victorian People, Victorian Cities, Victorian Things, A Social History of England
and a four-volume history of broadcasting.
Lord Briggs was made a life peer in 1976 and became Provost of Worcestor College,
Oxford, later in the same year; since 1978 he has also been Chancellor of the Open University.
He is married, with four children.
Michelle Burriedale-Johnson
author of The Victorian Cookbook
Michelle Berriedale-Johnson is the author of numerous cookery books, including Olde
English Recipes, Pepys at Table and The British Museum Cookbook.
She also acts as a historical consultant to the English Tourist Board and to
various film and television companies - in addition to her regular lectures and
demonstrations for cookery schools and historical groups all over Britain and the United States.
Alexandra Carlier
author of Ten Late Breakfasts
Alexandra Carlier is a distinguished cookery writer and broadcaster. She was
a key contributor to the highly acclaimed Time-Life Good Cook series and
to the Carrier's Kitchen series published by Marshall Cavendish (1981-83).
She is the author of The Dinner Party Book (Collins, 1986), a regular contributor
to Taste magazine, and a guest cook for The Times.
Jacques Constant
U N D E R
C O N S T R U C T I O N
Brigadier John Faviell
author of The Railway Journeys of my Childhood
John Faviell was born in Blackheathin 1898. He had a distinguished military career
that spanned both world wars. Following his education at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military
Academy at Woolwich, he was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery in 1916 and served on the Western Front,
where he was wounded and mentioned in dispatches.
After the war he spent some time in Ireland during The Troubles and then three years in India,
followed by two years at the Staff College at Camberley. He was in Palestine during
the Arab rebellion of 1936 where he was wounded and won the Military Cross. In the Second World War he served with the 9th
Highland Division and was later appointed to a senior post at the War Office. He was awarded the O.B.E.
in 1943, followed by the C.B.E. on his retirement in 1950. From 1951 to 1959 he was the Defense Advisor
to the Conservative Research Department.
John Faviell married in 1942 the widow of Sir Alec Russell. She was the grand-daughter
of Lord Russell of Killowen, and all the great grandchildren for whom this book was written derive from her first marriage:
Edward, Andrew, Thomas, James, Dominic and Hugo. All the fabulous aunts and uncles, however, are on his side of the family: Aunt Edith
(Royston, G.N.R.), Aunt Ines (Rampton, G.N.R.), Aunt Bec (Chiddingfold, L.S.W.R.) and Uncle Thorney
(Kelsale G.E.R.)
Harry Graham
U N D E RC O N S T R U C T I O N
Kate Greenaway
U N D E RC O N S T R U C T I O N
Frederic V. Grunfeld
author of
Wild Spain: A Traveller's Guide
Frederic V. Grunfeld was born in Berlin in 1929 and educated in Switzerland,
England and the United States. A writer and cultural historian, he lived in
Mallorca from 1961 until his sudden death in 1987, shortly after completing this book.
During those years he travelled from top to bottom of mainland Spain. He wrote extensively for
Time-Life Books on Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Scandinavia as well as on
places beyond Europe.
His books include Berlin for Time-Life, Prophets without Honour, a history
of German Jewish thinkers and artists, The Art and Times of the Guitar and Wayfarers
of the Thai Forest, a survey of the Akha tribe of Northern Thailand. He also wrote a
biography of Auguste Rodin, for which he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
He was successively the editor of Queen, a roving editor of Horizon
and contributing editor of Connoisseur.
Robin Guild
U N D E RC O N S T R U C T I O N
Jan den Hengst
U N D E RC O N S T R U C T I O N
Katharine Hepburn
U N D E RC O N S T R U C T I O N
Robin Hunter
U N D E RC O N S T R U C T I O N
Tim Jepson
author of Wild Italy: a Traveller's Guide
Tim Jepson was educated at Oxford University where he studied English Literature.
He has written six books about Italy and has a particular interest in Tuscany
and Umbria. He lived in Italy for five years and wrote for The Sunday
Telegraph as their Rome-Italy correspondent. He has written widely on other areas
of the world in Train Journeys of the World, Mediterranean Wildlife and
the Rough Guides to Canada and the Pacific Northwest.
Brendan Lehane
author of Wild Ireland: a Traveller's Guide
Brendan Lehane comes from an old Irish family and has lived for long periods in Ireland. He has
written, among other books, The Companion Guide to Ireland, Dublin, The Compleat Flea,
Natural History, an introduction for children, The Power of Plants,
a survey of the influence of plants on human life, and The Quest of Three Abbotts, a view of life and spirituality
during the golden age of Irish Christianity. He has travelled in Africa, America, the Middle East and
continental Europe, and has written articles for the Telegraph Magazine
and many other publications.
O. S. Nock
U N D E RC O N S T R U C T I O N
Richard Olney
author of French Wine & Food
Richard Olney is one of America's foremost cooks and a member of the Académie
Internationale du Vin. While pursuing his career as an artist, he began writing
about food and wine when he took up residence in France in 1951. He is the author of
numerous articles for magazines and journals and has been a regular contributor to
Cuisine et Vins du France. He was the chief consultant to the to the Time-Life
Good Cook series, and has written a number of highly regarded books,
including the French Menu Cookbook (1970), Simple French Food (1974),
Yquem, a history of the wine of the Château d'Yquem (1986), Romanée-Conti (1991),
Provence The Beautiful Cookbook (1993) and Lulu's Provençal Table (1994). His most recent
publication is The Good Cook's Encyclopedia (1997)
Elizabeth Poston
U N D E RC O N S T R U C T I O N
Jack Simmons
author of The Railways of Britain
Jack Simmons, doyen of British railway historians, is Emeritus Professor of History
at the University of Leicester. Apart from The Railways of Britain, first
published in 1961 and unassailably his best known work, he has written and edited
a number of highly regarded books on transport history, including St Pancras Station,
The Railway in England and Wales, 1830-1914, Transport Museums in Britain and Western Europe and
The Railway in Town and Country as well as two volumes in the 11-volume Visual
History of Modern Britain, of which he was General Editor. He was a member of the Advisory Council
of the Science Museum from 1969 to 1983 and for three years Chairman of the National Railway Museum Committee,
York.
Aline Waites
U N D E RC O N S T R U C T I O N
Malcolm Williamson
U N D E RC O N S T R U C T I O N