Jenny Turner writes:

Now everybody’s favourite millionaire tellygarch has been at it too, in Jamie’s Ministry of Food. ‘During and after the First World War terrible food shortages meant many people were malnourished. So when the Second World War broke out the government knew they’d have to do something pretty clever to stop this happening again,’ Oliver writes, introducing what he describes as a ‘modern-day war . . . over the epidemic of bad health and the rise of obesity’. His book has sprigged wallpaper on the cover, with ceramic ducks on the endpapers, red Gill Sans lettering and a full-page dedication, with period photo, to Marguerite Patten, ‘one of the original Ministry of Food girls and, since those days, a national treasure . . . Lots of love, Jamie x’. Like Colquhoun with her black rubbish-bags, Oliver has a vision of ‘filling Wembley Stadium’ – only this time with people cooking recipes from this cookbook. ‘Just imagine the swell of fun . . . If we, the public, can show the government we really care, then a load of other stuff will start to fall into place.’

(LRB 14 May 2009)

Michael Joseph | hardback 359 pp. |ISBN: 9780718148621