In 'Complicated Women', Bee Wilson explores the lives of ten women who achieved notoriety and influence in their own times and whose legacy is still felt today. Her subjects include Maria Montessori, author of the groundbreaking philosophy of child-centred learning, and Hedy Lamar, who developed the ideas behind wifi. For Clara Petacci, power came through her private life, while Alma Mahler faced the choice between creative and personal fulfilment.
In this collection of ten biographical essays, originally published in the London Review of Books, Wilson takes a candid look at her subjects and asks what it takes for a woman to make her mark in a world where legitimate sources of power are often denied. A bravura performance is one answer: from the clumsy but audacious fake Spanish dancer Lola Montez to the dazzlingly talented and politically daring Elizabeth Taylor. For the self-effacing Constance Lytton, her greatest act came in prison, exposing the British government's treatment of working-class suffragettes. But perhaps the most complicated accounts emerge from the world of fashion, where Coco Chanel and Vivienne Westwood challenged the way women are allowed to appear in the world.
This audiobook also features an introductory conversation between Bee Wilson and Malin Hay, an editor at the LRB and presenter of the LRB Podcast.
Subjects covered: Lola Montez, Constance Lytton, Maria Montessori, Alma Mahler, Coco Chanel, Clara Petacci, Edith Piaf, Hedy Lamarr, Elizabeth Taylor, Vivienne Westwood.
These pieces have been amended in places from the original for the purposes of recording.
We never snacked like this and we never binged like this. We never had so many superfoods, or so many chips. We were never quite so confused about food, and what it actually is.
This is a book about the good, the terrible and the avocado toast. A riveting exploration of the hidden forces behind what we eat, The Way We Eat Now explains how modern food, in all its complexity, has transformed our lives and our world. To re-establish eating as something that gives us both joy and health, we need to find out where we are right now, how we got here and what it is that we share.
Award-winning food writer Bee Wilson explores everything from meal replacements such as Huel, the disappearing lunch hour, the rise of veganism, the lack of time to cook and prepare food and the rapid increase in food delivery services. And Bee provides her own doable strategies for how we might navigate the many options available to us to have a balanced, happier relationship with the food we eat.
This is Not a Diet Book is a collection of calm, practical tips and ideas on healthier, happier eating from award-winning food writer Bee Wilson.From unsweetening your palate to rethinking the lunchtime sandwich, gathers together some of the wisest, most constructive advice for feeding you and your family.
We do not come into the world with an innate sense of taste and nutrition; as omnivores, we have to learn how and what to eat, how sweet is too sweet, and what food will give us the most energy for the coming day. But how does this education happen? What are the origins of taste?
In First Bite, the beloved food writer Bee Wilson draws on the latest research from food psychologists, neuroscientists, and nutritionists to reveal that our food habits are shaped by a whole host of factors, including family, culture, memory, gender, hunger, and love. An exploration of the extraordinary and surprising origins of our tastes and eating habits-from people who can only eat foods of a certain color to an amnesiac who can eat meal after meal without getting full-First Bite also shows us how we can change our palates to lead healthier, happier lives.
"An exploration of the notion that we can change our early food habits...With generous measures of grounded wisdom and solid research findings, the book should attract and possibly inspire broad groups of readers struggling with eating-related issues."-Kirkus Reviews
Fortnum & Mason Food Book of the Year 2016
We are not born knowing what to eat. We all have to learn it as children sitting expectantly at a table. For our diets to change, we need to relearn the food experiences that first shaped us.
Everyone starts drinking milk. After that it's all up for grabs.
We are not born knowing what to eat; we each have to figure it out for ourselves. From childhood onwards, we learn how big a portion is and how sweet is too sweet. We learn to love broccoli - or not. But how does this happen? What are the origins of taste? And once we acquire our food habits, can we ever change them for the better?
In First Bite, award-winning food writer Bee Wilson draws on the latest research from food psychologists, neuroscientists and nutritionists to reveal how our food habits are shaped by a whole host of factors: family and culture, memory and gender, hunger and love. She looks at the effects siblings can have on eating choices and the social pressures to eat according to sex. Bee introduces us to people who can only eat food of a certain colour; toddlers who will eat nothing but hot dogs; doctors who have found radical new ways to help children eat vegetables. First Bite also looks at how people eat in different parts of the world: we see how grandparents in China overfeed their grandchildren, and how Japan came to adopt such a healthy diet (it wasn't always so).
The way we learn to eat holds the key to why food has gone so disastrously wrong for so many people. But Bee Wilson also shows that both adults and children have immense potential for learning new, healthy eating habits. An exploration of the extraordinary and surprising origins of our taste and eating habits, First Bite explains how we can change our palates to lead healthier, happier lives.
Award-winning food writer and historian Bee Wilson traces the ancient lineage of our modern culinary tools, revealing the startling history of objects we often take for granted.
Since prehistory, humans have braved the business ends of knives, scrapers, and mashers, all in the name of creating something delicious-or at least edible. In Consider the Fork, award-winning food writer and historian Bee Wilson traces the ancient lineage of our modern culinary tools, revealing the startling history of objects we often take for granted. Charting the evolution of technologies from the knife and fork to the gas range and the sous-vide cooker, Wilson offers unprecedented insights into how we've prepared and consumed food over the centuries-and how those basic acts have changed our societies, our diets, and our very selves.
