What saucery is this?

Some authors offer readers a proper seat at the table with the way they write about food. They make it an integral part of their stories, flavouring our lives in the process

- SEEMA GOSWAMI

The books that got me hooked on reading were the ones by Enid Blyton, more specifically the Malory Towers series, set in an idyllic boarding house where Darrell Rivers and her band of intrepid friends had the most marvellous adventures. But what I loved most about these books were the scenes that described food: the midnight feasts that the girls sneaked off to, the ginger beer (Ginger beer? What was that about?) they guzzled on days out with their parents.

Enid Blyton's stories always had many descriptions of food, from picnic lunches to teatime and midnight feasts at Malory Towers. The British foods she wrote about became as familiar as the worlds her characters lived in.