After a life of literary acclaim and public shame, Norman Douglas, in the knowledge that he is dying, sends out invitations to his friends for a final lunch on Capri. The guests, including Graham Greene, Gracie Fields and Elizabeth David, have all been touched by the moralist of amorality.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Amazon Review
A delightfully inventive ragout of fiction and historical fact, Roger Williams's first novel revolves around a pair of 20th-century icons. There is Norman Douglas, the erudite charmer, gourmet, scoffer, quaffer and high-spirited pederast, best known as the author of South Wind. And there is Elizabeth David, who transformed Britain's humdrum eating habits in 1950 with the publication of Mediterranean Food. A homage to both of these glorious hedonists, Lunch with Elizabeth David comes in two parts, divided roughly along his-and-hers lines.
The first section details the unsentimental education--classical, culinary, sexual--of one Eric Wolton, a working-class Londoner celebrating his 13th birthday in Naples in 1911. This fictional figure is promptly "ravished by Norman Douglas the length and breadth of Calabria". Man and boy take their pleasures lightly indeed as they voyage across Italy's boot (which Douglas went on to celebrate in Old Calabria). And in later years, Eric, now resigned to a dull policeman's existence, recalls that summer as "the best time in his life." In 1951, however, he is abruptly summoned to the island of Capri, where Douglas and his fashionable entourage are joining Elizabeth David for a farewell lunch.
In the novel's second part, Williams veers more decisively in the direction of fiction, with Cherry Ingram's mother waiting upon Elizabeth David in a hotel in Ross-on-Wye in the late winter of 1946. Cut to the late 1980s, which find Cherry delivering a whitefish to a "Mrs David"--bibulous, overbearing, and suspicious of the finny creature's provenance. This chance encounter leads Cherry into her own past, which turns out to dovetail not only with David's but with that of Norman Douglas and his young paramour.
Williams's novel wonderfully evokes the glories of the Mediterranean, not to mention its multiple pleasures. It is perhaps less successful at splicing Eric and Cherry into the historical canvas: the drama of their lives inevitably pales beside Douglas's high-cholesterol existence, or David's. That said, the good parts are truly delicious and well worth sampling. --Ruthie Petrie --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'Amusing' -- Paul Levy
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Geoffers
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This could have been so much better. The subjects - Norman Douglas and Elizabeth David - are intriguing, and I, for one, want to know more. But the prose style is so overladen with unnecessary adjectives (eg the WET SEA?) that I cringed at most paragraphs. Is the author trying to 'do an Elizabeth David' - a lady whose prose style was natural, elegant, precise, classy and evocative? If so, its not working. I felt like I was trudging through treacle to get to the story beneath. I did persevere to the end, but this extraordinary mannerism just overshadowed the whole book.
As for the kindle transfer - Did no-one edit the copy? Its absolutely full of errors from the title page onwards. And that's really not good enough.
Could do better!
As for the kindle transfer - Did no-one edit the copy? Its absolutely full of errors from the title page onwards. And that's really not good enough.
Could do better!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
If you like reading books about food and know anything about either the life or cookery books of Elizabeth David, this book will fascinate you. Apart from being an interesting and informative sideways glance at Italy before the First World War and 80s and 90s Britain, it is great fun to spot the references to articles and events connected with Elizabeth David (the famous Norman Douglas inscription in her edition of Old Calabria, a mention of hop shoots, the auction of her effects). I found myself wishing I'd had the idea to write it! I also liked the time and place shifts. They confuse the reader a little at first and make the book seem disjointed, but, when the book has been completed, it all hangs together beautifully. An entertaining, informative, good read. I came upon it by accident when searching for Elizabeth David's "Harvest of the Cold Months" (which I still haven't tracked down) and it was a classic case of successful serendipity .
By Linda Read
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought for my sister who is an Elizabeth David fan and has been for a lot of years and she loved it.
By JimmyB
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
i quickly chose and ordered this for a best friend who loves cooking and loves reading and loves italy. but she reported back that, although it was a good book, it was pretty pornographic and little to do with elizabeth david. my fault for being in a hurry....
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book evokes Italy so beautifully, I couldn't bear to finish it. The story is about the fascinating but dangerous travel writer Norman Douglas and how so many famous people were influenced by him, including the brillliant cookery writer Elizabeth David. But it is also the story of a young Londoner, Eric, who came under Douglas's spell, which is told with such compassion and sympathy. The writing has a wonderful dry wit and gentle humour. I would recommend it to anyone.
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