The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities and Meaning of Table Manners - Softcover

The award-winning classic reissued for its 25th anniversary, with a new introduction by Bee Wilson

This is the book on the way we eat.

Solidifying her standing as a preeminent observer and scholar of everyday life, Margaret Visser takes on the sweeping history of table manners, from the civilizations of ancient Greece and medieval Europe to the way that technology has altered, and continues to alter, our behaviour over dinner.

Visser writes of everything from cultural idiosyncrasies around preparation and consumption, to the surprising origins of tableware - forks took eight centuries to become common utensils, the plate began as a four-day-old slice of bread. Blending folklore, history, and humour, this is a feast of fact and observation on one of our most primal rituals: the meal.

'Read this book... You'll never look at a table knife the same way again' New York Times

'Learned, fascinating and wide-ranging... one of those rare books that transforms your world while you are reading it... There is something quotable, interesting or alarming on every page' Hilary Mantel