Annabel Abbs
Author Interview - Annabel Abbs
Author of Miss Eliza's English Kitchen
Miss Eliza's English Kitchen tells the story of Eliza Acton, a best-selling cookery book writer in early Victorian England. Based on the true story of Eliza, it explores how and why a woman who had never previously boiled an egg became Britain's first Domestic Goddess, revolutionising home cooking and inventing the recipe we know today. Eliza worked closely with a local woman and their unusual relationship is a main thread of the story.
Author Interview - Annabel Abbs
Author I draw inspiration from: Eliza Acton herself, her poetry and her recipes (for this book).
Author Interview - Annabel Abbs | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: In bed
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Anna Karenina, from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Author Interview - Annabel Abbs | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: When my first book was published. I knew it was achievable then, rather than merely a fantasy!
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: I listen to a lot of audiobooks, as i walk and when i can't sleep. I love a paperback for my bedtime and holiday reading. And i love a hardback for gifting. I don't like ebooks as i like to underline and scribble in whatever I'm reading (with a real pen or pencil).
The last book I read: Scoff by Pen Vogler
Author Interview - Annabel Abbs | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: Both - I like to mix it up. i often take notes in pen, but when I'm writing prose for a book i'll work straight on to my laptop
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Mary Wollstonecraft from Love and Fury by Samantha Silva. I'd love to have befriended her (when no one else would), travelled to Paris with her, helped her hammer out her early feminist thoughts.
Author Interview - Annabel Abbs | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: Walking tour guide
Favorite decade in fashion history: The 1920s - for the first time women could move freely while dressed. How liberating that must have been!
Place I’d most like to travel: Svalbard in the arctic circle. The ice is melting so rapidly it might be a very different place a decade from now. I'd like to see it in its glittering wintry glory - while we can. Ideally with polar bears!
My signature drink: Lady Grey with lemon (no milk)
Favorite artist: Georgia O'Keeffe - i walked in her footsteps through New Mexico and Texas just before lockdown - for my last book, Windswept - and I think her work is wild and extraordinary
Number one on my bucket list: To walk the ancient pilgrimage route from Canterbury Cathedral in England to Rome in Italy. This was a route taken by thousands of people every year in the middle ages. Few do it now.
Find more from the author:
@annabelabbs (insta and Twitter)
@abbsannabel (FB)
Author Bio: Annabel Abbs is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Her first novel, The Joyce Girl, won the Impress New Writer Prize and has been translated into 10 languages. Her second novel, Frieda: The Real Lady Chatterley, was a Times Book of the Year 2018, and has been translated into seven languages.
Her third (non-fiction) book, The Age-Well Project, was published in June 2019. Her fourth book, Windswept, a memoir of walking, was published across the world to great acclaim in June 2021. Her fifth book, Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen, tells the fictionalised story of cookery writer, Eliza Acton. It’s currently being translated into 20 languages and has been optioned by CBS Studios. Her next book, 52 Ways to Walk, explores the science of walking and will be published in March 2022.
Annabel has a degree in English Literature from UEA and is a Fellow of the Brown Foundation. She lives in London where she spends her time, cooking, walking, reading and writing.
