Hungry

WINNER OF THE FORTNUM & MASON DEBUT FOOD BOOK AWARD 2021

WINNER OF 2021 LAKELAND BOOK OF THE YEAR

‘Extraordinary. Vivid, irreverent, heartbreaking.’ NIGEL SLATER

‘So funny and so delicious. I could eat it.’ DAWN O’PORTER

‘Delicious.’ THE OBSERVER

From Frazzles to Foie Gras: a memoir of wanting more.

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.

Warm, funny and joyous, Hungry is also about love and loss, the central role that food plays in all our lives, and how a Cadbury’s Fruit ‘n’ Nut in a hospital vending machine can brighten the toughest situation.

Reviews

‘Extraordinary. Vivid, irreverent, heartbreaking.’ NIGEL SLATER

‘So funny and so delicious. I could eat it.’ DAWN O’PORTER

‘… absolutely loved it. Add to your reading list now!’ NIGELLA LAWSON

‘I stayed awake LATE to finish and honest-to-god it’s WONDERFUL! Deliciously honest about ambition, family secrets, loneliness, success, it’s all here! It’s a HUGELY engaging and satisfying read.’ MARIAN KEYES

‘Charming, readable and resonating … this is British comfort food in book form’ STYLIST

‘A moving account of family and ambition’ VOGUE

‘Full of audacious, vodka-dry humour, Hungry is also tender and touching, she writes about her father’s dementia with heartbreaking honesty.’ RED

‘Funny and poignant account of life with her father and how it shaped her relationship with food…Dent is a fine comic writer, but she is also superb on grief and the small moments of connection that offer a way through.' THE OBSERVER

‘Tender and witty, the book is both a love letter to George, whose eventual decline from dementia she recounts, and the food that brought them together.’ THE GUARDIAN

About the author

Grace Dent is a broadcaster, author and columnist. She is restaurant critic for the Guardian and one of Britain's best-known voices in food. She has been a regular face on MasterChef – in all its formats – since 2013. Grace currently presents the multi-award-winning show The Untold on BBC Radio 4 and What We Were Watching for BBC Four. She is a familiar face on shows such as Have I Got News For You, Pointless and Great British Menu. Grace has published nine books for young adults and for several years wrote ‘Grace and Flavour’ for the London Evening Standard as well as a popular Independent column.