Cooking the Books: The Land Where Lemons Grow by Helena Attlee (15 Feb 2024)

We have teamed up with Kemps Bookstore in the Market place here in Malton to bring you a monthly book club with a difference!
Each month Jo Hardy from Kemps selects a book that has a foodie vibe and while Jo discusses and reviews the book and opens the discussion Gilly Robinson, owner, and head tutor here at The Cooks Place will then create two dishes mentioned in the text. Relax and enjoy as Gilly cooks and demonstrates how to make the dishes, which you eat along with a glass of something.

Cooking the Books is a great way to bring your love of books and cooking together. A wonderful night out for a group of book lovers or even on your own, to chat, eat and just a great excuse to read a book!

A friendly, welcoming atmosphere awaits.

The books are available to purchase from Kemps, 11 Market Place, Malton YO17 7LP.

This month: The Land Where Lemons Grow by Helena Attlee

A delightful book about Italy’s unexpected history, told through its citrus fruits

The story of citrus runs through the history of Italy like a golden thread, and by combining travel writing with history, recipes, horticulture and art, Helena Attlee takes the reader on a unique and rich journey through Italy’s cultural, moral, culinary and political past.

‘Fascinating . . . A distinguished garden writer, Attlee fell under the spell of citrus over ten years ago and the book, like the eleventh labour of Hercules to steal the golden fruit of the Hesperides, is the result. She writes with great lucidity, charm and gentle humour, and wears her considerable learning lightly . . . Helena Attlee’s elegant, absorbing prose and sure-footed ability to combine the academic with the anecdotal, make The Land Where Lemons Grow a welcome addition to the library of citrologists and Italophiles alike’ The Times Literary Supplement

‘A paradise of citrus is how I always think of Italy too: a place where ice-cold limoncello is sipped from tiny glasses on piazzas, and everything from ricotta cake to osso bucco is enlivened with zest. What a joy, therefore, to read Helena Attlee’s The Land Where Lemons Grow, which tells the story of Italy through its citrus fruit’ Bee Wilson, Telegraph

(Amazon, 2023)