I am just in the middle of reading this one of John Sutherland’s later books as we have invited him to Warwick Words in October. Let us hope he accepts as, if this is anything to go by, he is a truly fascinating companion to the world of literature ( and especially Victorian and contemporary literature). It is a cornucopia of surprises. No wonder he is called the man who has at last re-joined the reading public and academia.

It is not exactly stream of consciousness, but it has the same effect as we wonder from one literary joy to another. The frst of many fascinating sections covers ‘Literary Baked Meats’ and in covering broadly the subject of food in literature and amongst authors, we are whisked from a consideration of omelette Arnold  Bennett through Patrick Bateman in American Psycho feeding his girlfriend a chocolate-coated lemon-flavoured latrine disinfectant tablet (’it tastes minty she observes innocently’) to a consideration of whose was the ‘best’ ending of Grapes of Wrath, the Steinbeck original with Rose of Sharon breast-feeding a starving man or John Ford’s movie re-write with Ma declaiming ‘They can’ t wipe us out. They can’t lick us. We’ll go on for ever Pa ’cause we’re the people.’

So you can see the flavour. Erudition mixed with entertainment. A book to dip into, but a book which I am reading from cover to cover because it is so so enjoyable.

Highly recommended.