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'An instant classic' NIGELLA LAWSON

'Sweeping, intimate, defiant and brimming with love' LOUISE KENNEDY

'It is the roots that keep the trees from falling during a storm. Olia Hercules tells us that the same is true for people and nations' SERHII PLOKHY

I am writing this story without knowing its end: it begins long before I was born and will continue long after I die. I am writing this story to help myself heal and to make you understand.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules decided it was finally time to tell her story.

Strong Roots is the story of a century in Ukraine told through four generations of one extraordinary family. It takes us from years of Russification, to Olia's grandmother's deportation to snowy wastelands under Stalin, to her Aunt Zhenia's school protest, to her own parents' flight from Ukraine when their town was occupied in 2022.

This is an ode to the land, to ideas of home and belonging, and to family stories and recipes passed down the generations - the tang of sour cherries, the best way to make borsch. It is an account of resilience in the hardest of circumstances.

Strong Roots brims with hope and grief. It lays bare the compromises and betrayals of generations struggling and surviving through war, peace, invasion and exile. It is an uplifting reminder of how much the human spirit can endure when born from a land rich with strong roots.

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_________________

Winner of the Guild of Food Writers General Cookbook Award 2020
_________________

'A manual for living and a declaration of hope' - Nigella Lawson

'Beautiful, life-affirming memoir with recipes ... The most talented British debut writer in a generation' - Sunday Times

'Brave and moving ... as effective as a manual for life as it is as a kitchen companion' - Shamil Thakrar, co-founder of Dishoom
_________________

There are lots of ways to start a story, but this one begins with a chicken.

Because one night, Ella found herself lying on her kitchen floor, wondering if she would ever get up - and it was the thought of a chicken, of roasting it, and of eating it, that got her to her feet and made her want to be alive.

Midnight Chicken is the story of Ella's life in a Tiny Flat, and the food she cooked there. From roast garlic and tomato soup to charred leek lasagne or burntbutter brownies, she shares recipes that are about people, about love, about the things that matter every day. This is a cookbook-of-stories to make you fall in love with the world again.

With a new afterword about life after The Tiny Flat.
_________________

'An utter treat' - Dolly Alderton
'Divine. Utterly totally perfect' - Charly Cox
'Generous, honest and uplifting' - Diana Henry
'So thoughtfully and poetically written' - Josie Long
'She cooks like a dream and writes like an angel' - Sarah Phelps
'She has found a way to write not just about food itself but, more importantly, about the darkness for which cooking can be a partial remedy' - Bee Wilson
_________________

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Guts

A Memoir of Food, Failure and Taking Impossible Chances

by Melissa Leong