The Rituals Of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities And Meaning Of Table Manners

Description

This is a remarkable exploration of the way we eat. Solidifying her standing as a preeminent observer and scholar of everyday life, Margaret Visser takes on the sweeping history of table manners, from the civilisations of ancient Greece and medieval Europe to the way that technology has altered, and continues to alter, our behaviour over dinner. She writes of everything from cultural idiosyncrasies around preparation and consumption, to the surprising origins of tableware -- forks took eight centuries to become common utensils, the plate began as a four-day-old slice of bread. Blending folklore, history, and humour, this is a feast of fact and observation on one of our most primal rituals: the meal.

About the Author

Margaret Visser writes on the history, anthropology, and mythology ofeveryday life. Her most recent book is The Gift of Thanks, published by HarperCollins. Her previous books, Much Depends on Dinner, The Rituals of Dinner, The Way We Are, and The Geometry of Love, have all been best sellers and have won major international awards, including the Glenfiddich Award for Foodbook of the Year in Britain in 1989, the International Association of Culinary Professionals' Literary Food Writing Award, and the Jane Grigson Award. In 2002 she gave the Massey Lectures on CBC radio, subsequently published as the best-selling book, Beyond Fate. Her books have been translated into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. She appears frequently on radio and television, and has lectured extensively in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia. She divides her time between Toronto, Paris, and South West France.