Small Fires — Rebecca May Johnson

A BRACINGLY ORIGINAL, BOUNDARY BREAKING EXPLORATION OF COOKING AND THE KITCHEN, FROM A RISING STAR IN FOOD WRITING

'A manifesto for reclaiming cooking as an intellectual... a brave, honest book'
- SUNDAY TIMES

'An intense thought-provoking enquiry into the very nature of cooking, which stayed with me long after I finished reading it'
- NIGELLA LAWSON

'Rich in pleasure and revelation'
- OBSERVER

Small Fires reinvents cooking - that simple act of rolling up our sleeves, wielding a knife, splattering red hot sauce on our books - as a way of experiencing ourselves and the world. Cooking is thinking: about the liberating constraint of tying apron strings; the meaning of appetite and bodily pleasure; the wild subversiveness of the recipe; the power of small fires burning everywhere.

'Brave enough to hurt feelings, delicious enough for no one to care'
- New York Times

'Smart, thoughtful, creative'
- Ruby Tandoh

'Destined to become essential reading... Bold, beautiful, daring'
- Rachel Roddy

'Possesses an intellectual fleet footedness and exuberance akin to the writing of Deborah Levy or Rebecca Solnit'
- I NEWS

'I loved this genre-busting book. Shows that cooking can be a wild kind of magic'
- Bee Wilson

'Liberating...a new way to write about food'
- Jonathan Nunn Vittles

'Revolutionary... wakes up the reader's senses'
- Times Literary Supplement

'At once relatable and mind-expanding'
- Vogue US

'One of the most original food books I've ever read, at once intelligent and sensuous, witty, provoking and truly delicious'
- Olivia Laing

'Tender, electric, intimately transformative'
- Nina Mingya Powles