The quintessential Englishwoman Clarissa Dickson Wright, one of the Two Fat Ladies and author of Spilling the Beans, takes us on a personal journey through the country of her birth. From Cornwall to Cumbria, Norfolk to Northumbria she brings her extraordinary knowledge, huge passion, forthright opinions and inimitable wit to the distinctive history and regional character of every corner of England. In her cornucopia of local knowledge she reveals, for example, how Boudicca was the original Essex girl, that Lincolnshire has a coriander crop second only in size to India's, and just why a Cornish pasty should never contain carrots. As much an entertaining narrative as it is a travel companion, Clarissa's England will amuse, enlighten, surprise and delight all those who read it.

With her inimitable wit and outspoken views, Clarissa Dickson Wright opens her diary and takes us on a journey around Britain with this unrivalled collection of stories and anecdotes from her ever-eventful life. As celebrated cook and champion of the countryside, Clarissa's year includes being propositioned by a burly greyhound courser, meeting the Chairman of the Sandringham branch of the WI, a fishing terrier called Kipper and taking on the Health & Safety officials at a rain-drenched County Show. Criss-crossing the country she introduces us to long-forgotten traditions and colourful local festivals as she meets up with extraordinary characters and friends old and new. Entertaining, poignant, but never politically correct, RIFLING THROUGH MY DRAWERS is a breath of fresh air and proves once again why Clarissa is one of the nation's true treasures.

As energy and food prices continue to rise, there is no better time for the publication of the revised edition of this authoritative and practical guide on how to be self-sufficient. It is divided into three sections - The Green Outdoors, covering how to grow your own food, wild food, and livestock; The Green You, teaching you how to make and create to save money, use your garden produce and home brew; and The Green House with ideas on how to make your house greener, cheaper and more in harmony with nature. The book explores the little changes you can make to everyday habits, like picking wild food or using natural paints, as well as the larger changes, including keeping livestock, and lets you to take sustainable living as far as you want to - whatever size house you live in.

A sumptuously presented personal history of English food, from medieval times to the present day, by a beloved food writer of the" Two Fat Ladies"

In a major new history of English food, Clarissa Dickson Wright takes the reader on a journey from the time of the Second Crusade and the feasts of medieval kings to the cuisine--both good and bad--of the present day. She looks at the shifting influences on the national diet as new ideas and ingredients arrived, and as immigrant communities made their contribution to the life of the country. She evokes lost worlds of open fires and ice houses, of constant pickling and preserving, and of manchet loaves and curly-coated pigs. She also tells the stories of the chefs, cookbook writers, gourmets, and gluttons who have shaped public taste, from the salad-loving Catherine of Aragon to the foodies of today. Above all, she gives a vivid sense of what it was like to sit down to the meals of previous ages, whether an 18th-century labourer's breakfast, a 12-course Victorian banquet, or a lunch out during World War II. Insightful and entertaining by turns, this is a magnificent tour of nearly 1,000 years of English cuisine, peppered with surprises and seasoned with Clarissa Dickson Wright's characteristic wit.