Beatrix Potter wove one of her most malicious tales around the roly-poly pudding. Colette counted the nuts she would pick before falling asleep in the French countryside. Dorothy Wordsworth noted her pie-making sessions in her diary and Anne Frank observed the eating habits of her companions in hiding.

Food is a constant in our lives, and it has always been a basic ingredient of women`s writing - in household books, cookbooks, diaries, letters and fiction. In this, the first anthology to concentrate on international food writing by women, you can go on a picnic with Monica Ali, learn about Frida Kahlo`s wedding feast and indulge your appetites with Edwidge Danticat and Barbara Pym. Try making Elisabeth Luard`s Afghan Betrothal Custard, Martha Washington`s marzipan birds or Nigella Lawson`s favourite comfort food. And why not sneak into the literary kitchens of Banana Yoshimoto, Emily Brontë and Angela Carter?

Something`s cooking. . .

"A delightful selection of literary canapes" ( EVENING STANDARD)