Leftovers

Leftovers Synopsis

'Bingeable' - The Telegraph
'A book for our time' - The Spectator
'[Barnett's] an indefatigable researcher' - The Mail on Sunday

A richly entertaining and topical history of food preservation and waste in Britain from the Elizabethan kitchen to the present day.

At a time when a third of the food we produce globally is wasted, Eleanor Barnett opens a window on the everyday experiences of ordinary people in the past to reveal how factors such as religion, class and gender have historically shaped attitudes towards food waste.

Leftovers deploys a wide historical lens to link the many ingenious ways in which our ancestors sought to extend the life of food - encompassing Tudor household management, Victorian public health initiatives and two World Wars - to such contemporary anxieties as climate change, globalisation, scientific advancement, poverty and inequality.