English and European food writing
1928–1990 · United Kingdom
Jane Grigson was born in Gloucester in 1928 and read English at Cambridge. She worked in publishing and in art galleries before her translation of a French cookbook led her toward a writing career, and she married the poet Geoffrey Grigson, whose love of the English countryside shaped much of her work.
Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery (1967) was followed by Good Things, English Food (1974), and her celebrated books on vegetables and fruit. She wrote a long-running column for The Observer and combined scholarship, history, and plain good sense in a way few food writers have matched.
She died in 1990. Her books are still used as reference and as reading, which is exactly the double life she wanted them to have.
A gammon joint simmered then baked with cider, cloves, and a mustard and brown sugar glaze.
Stewed gooseberries folded into whipped cream, an old English pudding of sharp fruit and soft cream.
Celery hearts braised in stock and butter until tender, a humble English vegetable treated with care.
A harvest lunch in Wiltshire · 1982 · Wiltshire, England
Dinner at Carrier's · 1978 · London, England