Hungry

by Grace Dent

From an early age, Grace Dent was hungry. As a little girl growing up in Currock, Carlisle, she yearned to be something bigger, to go somewhere better.

Hungry traces Grace’s story from growing up eating beige food to becoming one of the much-loved voices on the British food scene. It’s also everyone’s story – from treats with your nan, to cheese and pineapple hedgehogs, to the exquisite joy of cheaply-made apple crumble with custard. It’s the high-point of a chip butty covered in vinegar and too much salt in the school canteen, on an otherwise grey day of double-Maths and cross country running. It’s the real story of how we have all lived, laughed, and eaten over the past 40 years.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Audiobook, Food, Autobiography, Book Club

304 pages, Audible Audio

First published October 29, 2020

About the author

British columnist, broadcaster and author.

Between 2003-2010, Dent published eleven young adult novels, and was also a presenter on BBC2's The Culture Show, and a magazine and newspaper journalist, including a TV column for the Guardian.

From 2011 to 2017 she wrote a restaurant column for the Evening Standard, and became the Guardian's restaurant critic in 2018. She is a regular judge on the BBC's MasterChef UK and makes frequent appearances in Channel 4's television series Very British Problems.

Grace said in her role as an author for teens: ‘....kids who claim to have never read anything longer than a text message are ploughing through my books nagging me for the next one. This makes me insanely proud.’

She lives in East London with her husband, who works in the music industry. When she's not writing comedy Grace is to be found 'faffing about on the Internet' or 'faffing about in the garden or kitchen' or 'just 'faffing about generally. "I'm an excellent 'faffer."

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forgive the pun, but I absolutely ‘devoured’ Grace Dent’s memoir ‘Hungry’ - a delicious, culinary walk down memory lane, both for Grace and the reader.

Grace Dent grew up in Currock, a southern suburb of Carlisle, Cumbria. Food was a very important part of her life, she was forever hungry, but as a child the food served was pretty basic. She recalls the 70’s, when the appearance of a nice sterile tin of Fray Bentos Chicken Pie felt like progress! That was something that would change dramatically, as she moved away from her working class community, ( but never her roots) to become a journalist, author, and national newspaper restaurant critic, with appearances on TV’s Masterchef.

This is a beautifully written, nostalgic account, of a Cumbrian working class girl, ascending to the dizzying heights of the media scene in London. It’s humorous, it’s enlightening, and it’s also very moving - the family’s experience of living with, and trying to cope with, her Dad’s dementia, was soul baring, and as such, brought me to tears. Food is a real memory trigger, both good and bad, and we each have our own, but I will never again see a bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut without thinking of Grace’s dad. A wonderful memoir!

* Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for an ARC for which I have given an honest unbiased review in exchange *

[Ceecee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grace Dent is a journalist, author, food critic and appears on television programmes such as Masterchef The Professionals in which she always enlivens proceedings!! Grace tells her fascinating story backwards and forwards in time from childhood to the present.

I absolutely love this memoir. It has all the essential ingredients, it’s funny, emotional and sad in places, it’s relatable and resonates and I like how she is self deprecating about her success. It makes you feel nostalgic too as childhood memories are peppered with food and television references, parental comments (I suspect we all got the same recycled ones) that takes you back to your own younger years. Some comments made me laugh out loud - Brownie badges!!! That made me laugh so much with my own laboured attempts to sew a button on a piece of fabric (I’m dangerous with a needle) for an utterly pointless but must have badge!! The lack of food choices when growing up resonates, It was Christmas plenty and rest of the year famine at our house!!! No wonder I’m food obsessed! The Dent household has a much better deal! Cut price too! The purple Cadbury’s wrapper - happy days. Her parents are lovely, you can see where she gets her wit from and this is what makes this very successful lady so grounded with her ‘working class’ Carlisle roots keeping her feet firmly on the ground. She charts her increasingly successful career and absolute kudos to her as she seizes opportunities and goes for it which I find admirable. I love her story of her relationship with food and I think most of us would find it very relatable. I like how she sees that some food trends are frankly ridiculous and I’d love to share a meal and memories with her she’d be great craic! I love how she and her brother are able to laugh their way through the crisis of ageing parents with failing health as humour sustains her through hard times. This part of her story resonates so much as it’s an almost mirror image of my own parental experiences and it makes me laugh and cry at the same time! The end of the book, well, I defy anyone to have a dry eye.

Overall, an excellent memoir. She’s real, she’s funny, often acerbically so, I love her shoulders back and chin up ‘like Aunty Frieda’ approach to life. Thank you Grace Dent for a marvellously entertaining trip down memory lane, I’m with you in solidarity with your parents and yes, we are all food critics at heart even if it’s only oven chips tonight.

With thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins/Non Fiction for the much appreciated arc.

[Ellie Spencer (catching up from hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounded up from roughly 4.5 stars ⭐️

Before I had started this book I wasn’t fully sure if I would like it. It is very much out of my comfort zone in terms of genre. But I was hoping that nostalgia would help pull me though. What I did not expect, was to reach the end of the book in tears.

Hungry is Grace Dents memoir. It follows her through memories of her childhood, the good and bad moments of adulthood, and the harder times experienced more recently.

I didn’t know a huge amount about Dent before I read this. I would recognise the name and face, but not much more. However, the way this book was written was so profoundly personal and honest. It has made me feel like I have a connection with her.

The memories of food from her childhood are ones that I am sure lots of people growing up in the UK can relate to. It brought back vivid memories of my own childhood and was a joy to read! Her more recent difficult times involve situations that unfortunately some of us can relate to. But they are written with so much love, highlighting the beauty in such little interactions. It filled my heart with both complete heartache and love.

This book made me laugh and cry. I have only cried at a few books in my time, but this one was so raw and truthful, before I knew it I had wet cheeks!

This will live with me for a long time. I’d recommend it to anyone with an interest in memoirs or food. Or anyone that wants to learn more about dementia.

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Grace Dent. I enjoy her humour and her appearances on Masterchef as a critic are a breath of fresh air in comparison with some of the others. So I thought it would be interesting to read her biography and find out more about her. It turned out not to be my sort of thing. It seems overly long to me with far too much time spent on her childhood. Her career pathway turns out to be a series of random opportunities rather than promotion due to knowledge or ability. She says herself that most of her life “has been a fluke”. She was appointed restaurant critic in The London Evening Standard randomly and is now writing in The Guardian. Clearly she has learned a lot about food along the way - she won Reviewer of the Year in 2017 - but it’s understandable why many eyebrows were raised initially.

Dent has written many books for teenagers and that is apparent in the style of this biography. For me, too much of it is dialogue, detailed memories from childhood and boasting about her fairly chaotic, until relatively recently, lifestyle. The best part of the book is towards the end when she movingly describes how she has cared for her ageing parents and many readers will be able to identify with that.

With thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for a review copy.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 5 out of 5]

What could be better, I ask, than a working-class Northern lass, with a love of good food, a cracking sense of humour and a real warmth about her, writing a memoir? Living a mere twenty minutes from Grace Dent’s hometown (city, really) of Carlisle, Cumbria, I felt this came at a time when we all need a little pick me up, and I found this fit the bill perfectly. Split between eleven chapters and a narrative shifting between multiple time frames ranging from girlhood right through to adulthood and is chock full of memories of her life, and both amusing and heartwarming anecdotes as well as some moving and more monumental one's, all which shaped her as a person.

It's one of the most fascinating, engaging and soul-baring memoirs I've had the pleasure to read, and I looked forward to dipping into it more each evening under a soft blanket with a cup of hot chocolate. It's inspirational and emotionally-resonant and at times it really touched me; it had me laughing, crying and nodding along in agreement. A cosy, entertaining and food-filled book; some of the descriptions had my mouth-watering, even for food I don't even enjoy - that's quite a feat. Accessible, relatable and impressive in its scope, I learned a lot about a local lassie done good. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Mudlark for an ARC.

[Rachel (not currently receiving notifications) Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prior to reading this book I confess to only having a vague idea of Grace Dent as a restaurant critic but I knew nothing of her career or her background and was drawn by the promise of an account of growing up in the 70s and 80s. Hungry chronicles Dent’s journey from a working class family and terraced house in Currock, Carlisle to her eventual hard-earned success as a journalist, broadcaster, teen author and restaurant critic. Best known as The Guardian’s food critic and for appearing on Masterchef: The Professional’s, Hungry is a warm, riotously funny and poignant account of family life, food and never losing sight of where you’ve come from. The writing is superb, at times heartfelt, honest and bittersweet and at others riotously funny as self-deprecating Dent pokes fun at herself and the industry she works in.

Dent’s book opens 317 miles and several decades away from the London where she made her name critiquing uber-trendy restaurants, in a suburb of Carlisle in 2008 and at the age of seven with her ex-army Liverpudlian dad, George, cooking tea for her and her younger brother. As she recounts childhood memories and family experiences, many shared over food, Hungry is a reminder of all things 1980s, from ‘playing out’, the arrival of superstores, staying up late to sneak a few minutes of The Kenny Everett Show, the introduction of Ready Brek right through to first lessons in how to cook and entertain courtesy of the Brownies hostess and cookery badges. Laughing her way through this and the fashion disasters of the era Dent also pertinently mentions the abundance of bright working class children who, unlike herself, got a disservice from state education in the 1980s and fell by the wayside. Dent’s determination to leave home took her to Stirling university where student writing, dogged determination and a refusal to say no were behind her arrival to work in London.

From her early days covering real-life features for Chat and Woman’s Weekly to appearing on late-night TV debate shows and programmes such as Britain’s Favourite Biscuit, the book covers Dent’s fortuitous opportunity covering a food critic vacancy at the Evening Standard and the beginning of her Grace and Flavour column. Also a writer of young adult novels and after achieving growing recognition of her talents as a comedy writer and columnist, Hungry covers everything prior to achieving her position as the Guardian’s restaurant critic. Dent’s admission that her modest background instilled a refusal to ever turn down work along with a willingness to knuckle down and get on with whatever life throws at you is refreshing. This is Dent’s extraordinary journey from the days of simply wanting to be full to moving in circles with people who believed the true goal was actually to taste food! The later stages tell of Dent’s mother’s fight against cancer and her father’s steady decline in the grip of vascular dementia and the family coming together again as Dent and her brother, David, care for their elderly parents.

A wonderful tribute to her own family life and a very honest and relatable account of the realities of ageing parents and dementia, Hungry is an irreverently funny and nostalgic warm hug of a book. An inspirational book by a truly down-to-earth and working class success story.

[Rhiannon Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a long (rather ranty) spiel in my head about this book so I'll start by saying that I bought this for myself as a Christmas present because I love Grace Dent. By that I mean I love her columns in the Guardian. Because that's the only place I've come across her. And she writes a great column - in a single page restaurant review she's entertaining, she's funny, she shows pathos and compassion and brings in all sorts of snippets on far ranging topics, including personal ones. Through her columns (and Jay Raynor's) I've learnt that you (well, I) don't read restaurant reviews because I have the faintest intention of ever visiting the restaurant in question, but because they can be wonderful pieces of writing in their own right. When Hadley Freeman was away on maternity leave and Grace wrote her column for a while, I was almost wishing Hadley didn't come back, I was enjoying Grace's column so much. Her "restaurant reviews" during the pandemic have been particularly enjoyable because she's had to write about other food-related topics and often these come more from the heart. Within the last few weeks, Grace's mother died and she wrote an incredibly heart-rending column about death in the pandemic, and what the wake and the food at the wake means to us, and how big a hole the lack of that has left in the mourning process. It also meant I read the whole of her book knowing that her mother has now died.

Onto the book itself, it felt like a book of 2 halves to me. One was the story of her WORKING CLASS childhood in Carlisle. Capitals used because there was a lot of emphasis on the working class bit. Not that there was any bid for sympathy - her childhood was happy, her family were loving and they didn't seem to want for anything. The second half was the story of her rise to fame. Turns out Grace has had a massive media career! She's written for loads of publications (not just about food, the food critic bit came quite late in her career), been on loads of TV programmes, written books, rubbed shoulders with many celebrities and generally lived quite a high flying life with first class flights, nights in £3,000 hotels, etc etc etc. She can't go to Tesco's without being recognised etc. Having read this I felt a bit stupid and naiive. Without really thinking about it, I had regarded Grace Dent as a bit of a niche writer - after all we're always hearing how small the Guardian's readership is. It also made me realise how narrow my own exposure to the media is. I've never watched MasterChef or Big Brother or read Marie Claire to name but a few of Grace's previous jobs.

Ultimately, I was left feeling a bit disappointed by the book. Most of the writing is very light-hearted, easy and enjoyable to read, but maybe skirting any deeper dive into emotional issues. I'm guessing this was deliberate - her father's "other" family is referred to very matter-of-factly, her ex-husband (always referred to as "husband", never by name) the same. Her rise to fame is cantered through also quite factually with the occasional reference to imposter-syndrome (don't forget the working class background!)

By far the most "enjoyable" part of the book - because it felt like it was actually written properly from the heart, was the section about her father's descent into dementia. I wish there'd been more of this depth of feeling in the rest of the book. There was very much a "play-safe" approach for most of it - given her high media profile and her celebrity interaction there was no gossip or expression of any strong opinion about anyone or anything. A cop-out really.

There were 2 thing I knew (or thought I knew) about Grace Dent before I read this book. One was her Guardian writing and one was that she was a vegan. I reached the end of the book without noticing a single mention of veganism. So, doubting myself, I went and checked and sure enough I found 2 articles by Grace Dent (for the Guardian) explaining her attitude to animals, animal welfare, and factory farming. She detailed how she eats mainly vegan at home - and in fact also when out at restaurants. She takes someone with her who eats the meat dishes, and she might try a small forkful. She says that for a period of her life in the 80s she was a "militant vegetarian" before creeping back onto meat for a while and then going practically vegan. So, how does none of this even get a mention in her book? How, in an autobiographical book by a FOOD WRITER is there NO MENTION of that writer's attitude to the actual food? Apparently she holds strong views about the consumption of animal products, never eats them at home, never orders them in restaurants, but this is not mentioned in her own book. I can only conclude it was strategic because she didn't want to upset the anti-vegan brigade blah blah blah. How cowardly. This last point has annoyed me so much, that although I still love Grace Dent and I will still enjoy her Saturday Guardian columns while drinking my tea in bed, my star rating is going right down.

[Aoife Cassidy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

I was familiar with Grace Dent’s writing from my time living in London in my 20s. I devoured her newspaper columns on the Tube and over breakfast, and I love her irreverent, sharp-witted style. I haven’t watched Masterchef for years but she’s also a judge on the BBC show.

Hungry is more of a trip down memory lane through the medium of food for anyone who grew up in the 1980s than it is a memoir, which is perfectly lovely. The book is warm-hearted and funny, but there was something missing for me. Dent keeps the reader at arm’s length for most of the book. I got the impression reading it that she was fiercely guarding her privacy.

There are interesting discussions around classism in Britain, grinding out a living independently of your family and living on your wits. I laughed out loud a few times at some of the antics from the early 00s during her magazine days working for Cosmo and Marie Claire.

Dent is very candid in terms of her father’s dementia, and her devotion to her parents is clear. Beyond that though, I didn’t really feel I got to know her. I’d still recommend it, especially if you’re a foodie and/or if you grew up in the 80s/90s. 3.5/5 ⭐️

*Hungry is available as an audiobook on @Borrowbox narrated by Dent herself. I started listening to it but switched to reading it. I find her style of writing much more enjoyable to read on the page.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an unexpectedly great book. I am not a fan of autobiographies as a general rule and I’m not even a massive fan of Grace Dent - she’s ok, I’ve quite liked her in a very low key kinda way. I am now firmly in camp Grace Dent - she sounds fabulous, I want to have dinner with this woman.

She really opens up in this book, it feels honest - it’s not always nice or happy reading, nor is it flattering to herself, at times it was quite raw with emotion too, but for the most part it was kind of fun and funny and it was eye opening on occasions, I even learned a thing or two along the way.

This is one of those books that if you are of a certain age (born in the seventies) you nod along with as you read, there are lots of memories here for all to share in.

The story does at times jump around a little, it is not all strictly in chronological order but I quite like it, it’s like she is rambling as she talks and gets distracted but that’s how tales are told in the real world isn’t it?

Not a lot to say about the ‘story’ itself, it is her life, ups and downs, warts and all and well written to be engaging and entertaining in itself, even though sometimes it is just a normal life.

Well done Ms Dent! 5*/5

[Mady · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is probably a case of ‘it’s me, not you’. I can’t remember where I saw a reference to this book that made me want to read it - I’d never heard about Grace Dent before picking this up! Also not having lived in the UK in the 80s or 90s means that there were many references to food, TV, famous people that I just didn’t get.
So this memoir on food written by a ‘celebrity’ was really a wrong casting from my side.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long been a fan of Grace Dent. Masterchef is one of my favourite TV programmes and I adore the 'critics round'. When I see that it's Grace Dent in one of the critic's chairs, then it is extra special, oh and if Jay Rayner is in one of the other chairs, my day is complete!

I have enjoyed every single page of this well-written, funny, emotional and completely honest memoir. I admire the author's ability to make the most mundane and ordinary of households sound like such an adventure. Grace Dent is a few years younger than me, but it really feels that time didn't move quite so fast back in the 70s and 80s, and I could relate to her adolescent experiences so much.
I live in the North, not as far North as Grace did, but it's the North - I won't be told otherwise! I remember the advent of the huge supermarkets; the excitement of the 'Whoops' yellow reduced price sticker (I still get that buzz today!). I remember microwaves being introduced (ours was second hand and my mother didn't allow us to walk past it whilst it was cooking .... in case we radiated our insides!)

Grace Dent was a determined young woman, she'd been brought up within a family of workers and she made sure that she got where she wanted to be. She's not ashamed to say that she accepted most jobs that were offered to her, despite the humour, it is so clear that she worked long and hard to get where she is today.

This is not just Grace's story of how she made her career though. It is also an emotional and often quite heart-breaking account of how her family has dealt with her father's illness. From the beginning, when all of them just thought Dad was a bit grumpy, ate too much Cadbury's Fruit n Nut and was obsessed with his daily newspaper. Right through to the very end, where Dad often no longer recognises them, where he sits in a room, skeletal and not interested in food anymore. It's devastating. Grace was her father's 'only little girl' ... and that phrase hides yet another story!

I really liked Grace Dent before I read her book. Now I think I actually love her. I flew through this one, I felt as though I was there with her. It's honest and highly entertaining. I'd really like some more!

[alice last · Rating 4 out of 5]

a lot more beautiful than i was expecting

[Don Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a journey. A great listen, completely different to what I expected.

[Paula Hartharn-Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very light hearted enjoyable read, brought back lots of memories especially food related ones!

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must admit, I had never heard of Grace Dent, before her memoir -- "Hungry: A story of growing up and wanting more" -- was announced as the July selection for an online book club I belong to. By reading the book description & author blurb, I gathered that she was a well-known food writer and TV personality in Britain, currently at The Guardian.

"Hungry" follows Grace (born in 1973) from her childhood in a working class family in northern England to university in Scotland to clawing her way into writing for increasingly more prestigious publications in London -- eventually as a food critic -- and also appearing as a television commentator. There's plenty about food along the way, as the title suggests (from the tin-can fare and convenience foods of Grace's childhood to some of the most expensive restaurants in London), but also about Grace's family, and in particular her relationship with her father. "My only little girl," he'd call her (except Grace discovered that wasn't true: her father had been married previously and had two other daughters, as well as a son from another previous relationship). At the height of her career, she moves back to Cumbria to help her brother care for her aging parents.

The geography, the brand names and the dishes that Grace writes about might not have been familiar to me, as a Canadian/North American -- but food, family, growing up and growing older are something we can all relate to. This book was funny (the description of Grace dressed up like a Christmas pudding for the cover of the Christmas edition of the Guardian magazine had me in stitches) and poignant and full of sharp observations about family and class and ambition and the publishing world and foodies and so much more. The writing is amazing. I bawled my way through the entire final chapter, including the shopping list from Grace's last-minute Christmas Eve trip to the supermarket.

And now I'm off to open a can of Campbell's soup and brown some hamburger and onions and cook some noodles and make my own version of Grace's childhood comfort food -- what my American mother refers to as "Minnesota Lutheran potluck cuisine," and what my relatives there would refer to as "hotdish." (You might call it a casserole, lol.)

Five (5) stars.

[Sandra Dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

God, I loved this book! As a Cumbrian from a working class background, just a few years older than Grace and with ageing parents and a daughter myself with an English Literature degree trying to make her way in the world of writing in our capital city, there are many similarities between Grace’s experiences and mine. However, anyone should surely enjoy this beautifully written memoir full of happiness, sadness, highs and lows. It had me howling with laughter at points and at others, I had a lump in my throat and tears pricking the backs of my eyes. Truly a wonderful read from a Cumbrian lass who was hungry for more and achieved it - good on her.

[Hayley Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely nostalgic memoir about growing up in the north and the food associated with that. It’s also about coping with ageing parents and the feeling of detaching yourself from your roots when you move away from where you grew up. A lot of this struck a chord with me (“so you think you’re posh now” etc). I was inspired by Grace’s resilience and determination as she ascends to the height of London media circles from humble beginnings.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not expect, as in not at all, that my next four-star read would be a non-fiction. I do not read non-fiction. But since I moved to the UK I tried to learn as much as I could about the local culture (including history) and someone recommended I read Hungry.

It was so worth it. I'm very picky when it comes to books, but when I find something I like, I do not let it go.

Grace Dent has a fantastic way to tell a story. She uses the type of irresistible British humour that mixes sarcasm with irony and pervasive self-deprecation and adds a crude matter-of-factness. Her writing is light and funny (count how many times I'll refer to humour in this review) and she makes all the people she talks about come alive on the page.

The last chapters are very emotional. They kind of threw me off (I was really enjoying the lighthearted mood throughout the first 70%) but they give the book a down-to-earth spin. There is an emphasis on the importance of family throughout the story that's very touching. It shows how much Dent's loved ones shaped her life, and that's a topic that deserves attention in memoirs and the such.

I'm usually not one for long chapters (yeah, also count how many times I'll say this book took me out of my comfort zone) but I didn't mind their length in Hungry. The fact that their theme revolved around memories of specific foods that marked Dent's life was: a) a nice thread throughout the book, b) so very fitting with Dent's profession.

And I have learnt so much about UK culture, principally of the working class. It felt as if I were living with the Dent family. This type of window story, told very simply but with so many details, is thousands of times more useful than any history lesson.

Hungry reminds me a bit of the series Derry Girls, which is set in Northern Ireland in the 1990s and uses a similar kind of humour and style in telling its story. It's very British, to describe the daily life of the working class like that.

[Jo_Scho_Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a funny, fascinating and touching memoir this was. Grace Dent is well known as an acerbic tv presenter and columnist in well known newspapers. This is her story; from growing up in the working class town of Carlisle where her Mam would love nothing more than getting a bargain at the supermarket, to her dizzying climb to fame in London. This is a rags to riches story. But it is also so much more than that, Grace writes with such skill and unflinching honesty that the reader is sucked into the story page by page.

I’m a year younger than Grace and from just across the map, Newcastle. So the memories were so wonderfully accurate, I smiled and laughed in so many places. And the memories of food were so evocative; Grace’s Mam doing the ‘big shop’ resulted in a 20 minute trip down Memory Lane between my husband and I remembering the same.

Although Grace’s memoir does have food as its theme, as she reveals more of her life it becomes evident that it’s more a book about family. It has laughter and sadness throughout, coupled with an intoxicating glimpse of life as a journalist and tv presenter, and she writes so wonderfully well that by the end if it you’ll feel you could quite easily go and sit quite comfortably in the pub with her. For a pint 🍺 in Carlisle and a glass of champers 🍾 in London of course.

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned:
Me: You are John Torode’s collarless jacket
Husband: You are Grace Dent
Both racing to beat the other to the ultimate: You are Greg Wallace

This regular series of put downs from our house unfortunately shows my normal respect levels for Dent - always going to listen to her Masterchef reviews but not having read the papers for years, we continue to be surprised at her being a restaurant critic. Did I choose to buy this as a redemption? Little did I expect it to be in terms of relatability and breadth of subjects though...

1980s matching living encapsulated - Brownies, dead arms, calor gas fires bum warming, TV dinners and kitchen mod cons, town living, outwardly undramatic teenager years, families and women, newspaper and magazines escapism, looking for bedside secrets, Heather shimmer and split ends, Deee-Lite, clubbing, lava lamps and Betty Blue posters (I only had the postcard), yearning to get to the city and higher education whilst making drinks in McDonalds and pubs last for hours.

The food memories though - paste, Tablet, prawn cocktail pre roast starter (which we still have!), Christmas meal, gravy, tinned salmon, Findus crispy pancakes and potato waffles, Nan biscuits and cake, viscounts and breakaways - this sounds like a Peter Kay show but it’s so true - Asda and other large chain supermarkets suddenly driving down the price of some foods and making others available en mass changed things. We suddenly went from bland, predictable circle carrot style meals to huge more worldly choice, and the conversations were all about the food. Was this a working class thing (great nod to varieties within in the end interview)? Possibly, but it was the connections that it made through all of this as a simple leveller - I still enjoy asking at the end of a phone conversation with family and close friends with “ooo, what are you having for lunch/tea/Sunday roast/supper”. I love gifting different ingredients, drinks, sweet treats - it’s a base for all of us which needs nothing more than consumption, and through 80s consumerism it stepped up, and we had bonding and fun adventure on something so intrinsic - joy though food.

Would I want to go for a meal with Dent now? Probably not but what an amazing story written from the heart and stomach of a family - not massively adventuring of anecdoting, but living, adapting, struggling but accepting and continuing

“What food did you have on the plane...?” The Castle 1997

[Tripfiction · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir of wanting more CARLISLE / LONDON



Hungry is Grace’s ‘memoir of wanting more‘, tracing her story from growing up in a small community just south of the Scottish border to making it as a media star in the bright lights and fancy eateries of expense-account London. She’s not even 50 yet, so you might question if her life to this point justifies a memoir. But this is an insightful and entertaining read, stripping bare the hungry ambition of a chubby little girl from the north, telling us how she clawed her way up each rung of the London media ladder, only to be pulled back to Carlisle to care for her ageing and infirm parents.

It’s all recounted with Grace’s trademark mastery of language, imparting information with devastating wit and wisdom.

‘The Dents’ trolley contained virtually no spice, heat or evidence at all that Britain (in 1980) was part of the global commonwealth. Or that we even had much to do with Europe. We fried in White Cap lard. We ate Presto medium-sliced, slightly plasticky white bread. Our cheese was orange, almost always Cheddar, and we were still cagey about the idea of melting it.. Rice was always white and it was used almost exclusively for puddings, which my mother would make in the oven in a glass dish.’

After school and a degree from Stirling University – scraping in through clearing – Grace’s hunger to succeed soon sees her climbing the corporate media ladder in London, embracing the urban excesses of the 90s. Drink, debt, late nights…and food.

‘How could I go back to Carlisle now I’d fallen in love with the slimy pink lox and pungent mashed herring at Sammy Cohen’s all-night beigel shop? Or Korean gochujang sauce over a bowl of bibimbap? Or fierce Scotch Bonnet chilli, hiding in a plate of ackee and saltfish? I loved chow mein, but I also now loved pho, ramen, udon and fideu.’

But just as I feared success and a laser work focus would ruin Grace, in the way it had her brief marriage, she is pulled back to Carlisle and a nicer, younger self. Her Mam gets cancer and her dear Dad begins to suffer from dementia. The latter part of the memoir describes her exhaustion – mental and physical – as she and her brother care for ageing, ailing parents in a rented bungalow in the Lake District, while Grace juggles newspaper deadlines, Masterchef filming and restaurant reviewing.

Finally, they bow to the inevitable and Dad has to go to a home.

‘Dad is no longer here, but he is still in every room we sit in for weeks and weeks and months and months. Dad’s space at the table will always be empty, The wound I have about Dad only ever seems to grow the slenderest of scabs. The merest memory makes it bleed.’

Poignant.

[Lianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir tracing Grace Dent's upbringing in Cumbria, her and her family's relationship with food and her career trajectory from women's magazines to restaurant critic. So much of this was nostalgic and resonant for me personally - her recollections of staple foods of an 80's childhood took me right back to the excitement of the weekly 'big shop' when my sister and I would gorge ourselves on packets of Angel Delight or jars of Nutella. There's some insightful commentary on classism in the media and the chapters where she discusses the illnesses of her parents are heartbreaking. Full of warmth and well-observed humour, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I listened to the audiobook, which is read by Grace herself.

[Gail Haigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I’m not usually likely to read a memoir, but did so on the strength of a recommendation, and I’m so glad I did. This is a fantastic book on many levels. Grace Dent is a fabulous writer (and narrator, as I listened to this on Audible) - very witty, sharp and well observed. As a child of a working class family growing up in the north in the 80s and 90s, there were so many things I could relate to about Grace’s family and upbringing. This was a real nostalgia-fest - the food, the TV shows, the media and music - fabulous and funny. At the heart of it, though, this is a story about family. Moving and poignant, as Grace deals with and comes to terms with her parents’ failing health in parallel with her own success soaring. Wonderful - I would highly recommend.

[Emerald Denniss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love LOVED this book! A new fave for sure. Reading memoirs by other working class folks is like chatting to your mate like you’ve known eachother all your lives. Grace’s anecdotes will have you texting your mates and your family and friends to remind them of familiar things we’ve all done or said or places we love been. That shared warmth of working class community and pride isn’t always easy to find especially not in an honest, real talk way by legit folks. I cried a few times, I laughed a bunch of times. Just a total delight!

[BeccaJBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. It was a lovely memoir told through Grace Dent's relationship with food. We start way back in her childhood and end up in present day. Seeing her come from a little northern girl living in a normal working class street with her family, to the well known food critic she is today. A million miles away from those humble beginnings. The story has information about her father's decline in health, her rise up the career ladder and her evolving relationship with all kinds of foods.

A lovely read, I only wish I had read it over a longer period of time rather than rushing through it for a readalong.

Recommended for readers of non fiction. Memoirs, food memoirs, celebrity autobiographies.

Thanks Harper Collins for my copy.

Www.thebeautifulbookbreak.com

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the part about her early life. It was a cosy little memoir. I wasn’t so interested in the rest, but it was ok

[Claire O'Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, thoughtful, nostalgic - a great read.

[Sophie Houston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely perfect. I wasn't expecting such marvellous writing, and certainly wasn't expecting to be crying by the end.

[Janet Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not put it down. I was highly entertained from start to finish. A fabulous read.

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and comforting.