Martine Bailey
Kindle Edition | Pages: 400 pages Rating: 3.72 | 1206 Users | 280 Reviews
Point Books In Pursuance Of An Appetite for Violets
| Original Title: | An Appetite for Violets ASIN B00L73JQ68 |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Biddy Leigh, Lady Carinna, Loveday, Renzo Cellini |
| Setting: | England France Italy …more Europe,1772 …less |
Ilustration In Favor Of Books An Appetite for Violets
That’s how it is for us servants. No one pays you much heed; mostly you’re invisible as furniture. Yet you overhear a conversation here, and add a little gossip there. A writing desk lies open and you cannot help but read a paper. Then you find something, something you should not have found.Irrepressible Biddy Leigh, under-cook at the forbidding Mawton Hall, can’t wait to settle down with her sweetheart and set up her own tavern. But when her elderly master marries the young, enigmatic Lady Carinna, Biddy is unwittingly swept up into a world of scheming, secrets, and lies.
Forced to accompany her new mistress to Italy, Biddy takes with her an old household book of recipes, The Cook’s Jewel, in which she records her observations. When she finds herself embroiled in a murderous conspiracy, Biddy realises that the secrets she holds could be the key to her survival – or her downfall . . .
AN APPETITE FOR VIOLETS is an utterly compelling story of food, obsession and mystery, introducing a brilliant new voice in historical fiction.
Define Out Of Books An Appetite for Violets
| Title | : | An Appetite for Violets |
| Author | : | Martine Bailey |
| Book Format | : | Kindle Edition |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 400 pages |
| Published | : | January 13th 2015 by Thomas Dunne Books (first published December 2nd 2013) |
| Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Mystery. Fiction. Romance. Cultural. Italy. European Literature. British Literature |
Rating Out Of Books An Appetite for Violets
Ratings: 3.72 From 1206 Users | 280 ReviewsCriticize Out Of Books An Appetite for Violets
Biddy Leigh, the lead character of Martine Bailey's debut novel, works as the under-cook at Mawton Hall in Cheshire in the 1770s. Adorning each chapter opening are the recipes she consults and writes in a household book she carries on her adventures.Written by an award-winning amateur cook, An Appetite for Violets fits as foodie fiction, a mini-genre that compels reviewers to pull culinary metaphors out of their cupboards and serve them up for readers delectation. (See? It's almost too easy.)Man, this was fun! A page-turning historical foodie mystery, set in the late 1700s. We follow Biddy Leigh, a sassy cook who has a curious mind and a passion for cooking, as she travels with her new mistress, the demanding young Lady Carinna, through Europe for some mysterious purpose. There are twists! Romance! Interesting, slightly disgusting old recipes! I loved it and stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it.
I love old recipes and this story revolves around them. The book is beautifully plotted and conceived. The late 1700s is such an interesting time period in terms of cooking, notions of class distinction and the burgeoning role of public spaces for formerly private activities. This is just a wonderful book with a mystery, a murder, a poisoning, some sexual shenanigans and financial misbehavior all wrapped into a traveling tale of food and lodging from England to Italy. I haven't enjoyed a book
Martine Baileys first novel is a tour de force set in eighteenth-century Europe. Its heroine is plain-talking Biddy, an under-cook at an English mansion. We are brought into her world through a cookery journal named The Cooks Jewel, full of recipes jotted down through the years by a succession of women. When a new mistress arrives at the house, Biddy is soon drawn into intrigue and the heart of a mystery, the roots of which are not fully revealed until the very end of the book. There are many
The beginning: it is 1773. Kitt, a brother who seeks his disappeared sister, arrives at an Italian villa to find it abandoned, the dinner table laid with forgotten cakes and sweetmeats. You think the story will be about Kitts sister Lady Carinna but she is a bit-player. The real story belongs to her under-cook Obedience, Biddy, Leigh, forced to accompany her mistress on a Grand Tour to the Continent. After this first short section at the Villa Ombrosa, the story starts at Mawton Hall in 1772
First off, the cover: absolute perfection!This book was a lot of fun. The recipes are just so fascinating by themselves and then you add a wonderful character like Obedience Leigh. I liked her so much and her good heart was just refreshing. I'm really enjoying these foodie books with mystery and a spark of a good fire. If you love food and darn near worship it and would never imagine a day without your menu planned out in your entire life, this book is for you.I guess I'll have to try BURNED TEA
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