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My Life as a Wife: Love, Liquor and What to Do About Other Women

My Life as a Wife: Love, Liquor and What to Do About Other Women

by ElisabethLuard (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2013

    $31.65
Synopsis

Born in London during the Blitz, Elisabeth Luard - step-daughter of a British diplomat and reluctant debutante in her teens - was working as an office typist at Private Eye when she fell for the `King of Satire' Nicholas Luard. At just twenty-one years old, she married him. As the pioneer of Britain's satire movement, Nicholas was intelligent, handsome and charismatic, yet he was also unreliable, a philanderer and very often only just ahead of the bank. Their life together may not always have been easy, but it was certainly never dull. Tracing the fascinating years they spent together in London to their years in Spain, France, the Hebrides and Wales with their four children, Luard's frank and bittersweet memoir takes us through the best and the worst of their marriage, and chronicles Nicholas's devastating descent into alcoholism. Yet this is also a story of hope as well as sadness - the healing power of children, the comfort and pleasure of good food and the simple joy of making life work. Both honest and tender, it is an account of a life shared and, above all, of a love story with flaws.

$31.65

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 336
 Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks
Published: 25 Apr 2013
ISBN 10: 1408831252
ISBN 13: 9781408831250
Book Overview: A story of laughter and hope as well as sadness - the healing power of children, the comfort of the kitchen table, the delight of good food and the simple joy of making life work - written by a woman of spirit.

Media Reviews
Wonderfully wise and moving memoir ... This is a book suffused with love - of food, family, and of a clearly charismatic man. It is the story of a life with an epic sweep ... This is some woman; this is some life * Scotsman *
A brilliantly funny yet moving memoir * Daily Mail *
Elisabeth Luard, serious contender for Greatest Living Food Writer ... writes books that are fiercely intelligent but without preachiness, deliciously pragmatic and laced with humour ... exploring food, family and grief with equal frankness * Daily Telegraph *
[Luard] joins a line of inspiring cooks who write about the everyday necessity of food as the ultimate refuge from the harsh reality of death * The Times *
There are many things in the book to enjoy, not the least the recipes which accompany each chapter. Elisabeth's account of her childhood is amusingly dreadful and her portrait of Miriam Rothschild is a minor masterpiece -- Carolyn Hart * Telegraph *
Luard calls this a love story with flaws and I admire her for not trying to put a rosy glow on what sounds like a difficult marriage -- Lynn Barber * Telegraph *
She writes movingly, too, of the death of her journalist daughter, Franscesca ... There is a lot of pain in My Life as a Wife, but overall it is a celebration of life, second nature to a professional cook and lover of food -- Gerald Jacobs * Jewish Chronicle *
Author Bio
Elisabeth Luard is an award-winning food writer whose work includesEuropean Peasant Cookery (published in the US as The Old World Kitchen, a New York Times benchmark cookbook of the twentieth century), The Food of Spain and Portugal, European Festival Food, Sacred Food and The Latin American Kitchen. She has also written a couple of doorstopper novels including Emerald (WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award), and a trio of memoirs-with-recipes including Family Life (Guild of Food Writers' Book of the Year 1997), and was awarded the Glenfiddich Trophy for Foodwriting in 2007.She contributes regularly to national newspapers and magazines including The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Country Living and The Oldie and is currently Director of The Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery. She lives in west Wales.