From porridge to parchment, how bread has shaped our world: for better or worse and the part it has to play in our future.
As the title suggests, this book will explore how bread, a ubiquitous staple, has helped connect communities and shape society as well as how it has been the agent of disease and disorder. The principal question to be answered will be: Is bread good or bad?
Starting with the first loaves of bread, an imagined euphoria at a novel food that allowed the first of us to eat on the move, the book will chart a history strewn with significant periods of our shared culinary history. Wheat, wars, disease, starvation, hallucinations, gluttony, chemicals, adulteration, deconstruction and industrialisation. We will journey through and unpick some of bread's triumphs, failures and flaws.
David Wright is a baker, food writer and presenter from Suffolk. He has co-authored DJ BBQ's Backyard Baking (Quadrille, 2023) and writes for The Sandwich Magazine regularly. David's father and grandfather were also bakers which allows him a unique personal window into the period before mass produced bread. A graduate from King's College London where he studied English Literature with Film, David has written articles for many small publications and worked as an advertising copywriter before returning to baking. David's presenting includes compering the Literary Stage at Camp Bestival, demonstrating at festivals such as Tom Kerridge's Pub in the Park and working alongside brands such as Gozney - producing video content for their popular YouTube channel.
David Wright is a professional artist and model maker who has written numerous articles in the railway modelling press. He is well known at the major railway modelling exhibitions where he is especially renowned for his informative demonstrations and theatre presentations.David's books for Crowood include Making Rural Buildings for Model Railways, Making Urban Buildings for Model Railways, Modelling Branch Lines - A Guide for Railway Modellers, Modelling Ports and Inland Waterways - A Guide for Railway Modellers, and Creating Back Scenes for Model Railways and Dioramas.
