‘In this joyful examination of six women’s lives in food, Shapiro sets out to excavate the minutiae of domestic routines for insights into the connection between mental state and menu … Always entertaining and brimming with enticing small details, from an image of Roosevelt scrambling eggs at the table in a dinner-party performance piece, to Pym noticing that Philip Larkin refused Brie at lunch.’ Francesca Wade, Financial Times ‘A bounteous and elegant feast for hungry minds’ BookList, (starred review) ‘If you find the subject of food to be both vexing and transfixing, you’ll love What She Ate’ Elle ‘What She Ate is a culinary and historical delight. Feast on it slowly so as not to miss a crumb’ BookPage ‘I devoured the book in one sitting’ Washington Post ‘Fascinating’ Wall Street Journal ‘A deliciously satisfying read’ Chicago Tribune ‘Fascinating. Shapiro, like a consummate maître d’, sets down plate after plate and an amazing thing happens: Slowly the more familiar accounts of each of the women’s lives recede and other, messier narratives emerge. How lucky for us readers that Shapiro has been listening so perceptively for decades to the language of food.’ NPR ‘A collection of deft portraits in which food supplies an added facet to the whole.What She Ate redeems the whole sentimental, self-indulgent genre of food writing’ Slate ‘A unique and delectable work’ Kirkus ‘What She Ate establishes Laura Shapiro as the founder of a delectable new literary genre: the culinary biography. A richly satisfying volume’ Megan Marshall ‘I wolfed down this wonderful account of the eating lives and habits of six notable and very diverse women … Shapiro … writes both engagingly and a trifle wryly’ Bookseller ‘Riveting. Shapiro reveals with wit and irony so much that is fascinating and unknown. What She Ate is both menu degustation and grand banquet’ Claudia Roden

• As people get more and more interested in food and cooking, there is a hunger for more narrative books about food. WHAT SHE ATE will appeal to fans of JULIE AND JULIA (27,000 TCM), Laurie Colwin’s HOME COOKING (TCM 2000), Nigella Lawson, Nigel Slater and Bee Wilson. • The women featured include Dorothy Wordsworth, Barbara Pym, Eva Braun and Eleanor Roosevelt. People interested in each of them should be drawn to the book. • In its approach – joining disparate stories by focussing on domestic life – it is reminiscent of Olivia Laing’s THE LONELY CITY, Alexandra Harris’s ROMANTIC MODERNS and WEATHERLAND and Kathryn Hughes’s VICTORIANS UNDONE. • Will be beautifully packaged to make a perfect gift. • WHAT SHE ATE has just come out in the States to rapturous press and very strong sales. • Laura Shapiro is a hugely respected culinary historain.