The Elizabeth David Collection

In the mid-1960s, the legendary English food writer Elizabeth David ran a kitchenware shop in London where she offered imported equipment that attracted serious cooks who were prepared to deal with her incisive, sometimes unforgiving opinions.

For sale at the shop, David wrote four small booklets which, in their original form, are collector items. This set reprints the contents of each with the addition of simple illustrations and no alterations to the original text.

Each volume contains a mixture of historical perspective, practical advice on technique and equipment, and recipes in conversational form. Although David’s shop was an emporium for goods from elsewhere, her books are mostly about English things, with small windows to the larger world.

The four volumes are:

• The Baking of an English Loaf
• Dried Herbs, Aromatics and Condiments
• English Potted Meats and Fish Pastes
• Syllabubs and Fruit Fools

Each volume is hardcover, 32 pages, 6⅜ x 5 inches. The set is slipcased.