Books: An Appetite for Violets
Exclusive interview with Martine Bailey and a review of her new novel about a young cook caught in a murder mystery in 18th century Italy
Rating: Three Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“I came across a historical tidbit about the sex lives of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and her best friend Lady Bess Foster, whose sharing of the Duke’s favours is shown in the film The Duchess,” says An Appetite for Violets author Martine Bailey. “The movie doesn’t show that in the days before contraception, both women had to hide illicit pregnancies by travelling abroad and leaving their babies with foreign foster families. That gave me the idea of writing from the point of view of a cook to an aristocratic young wife, who has no idea a murderous conspiracy is being hatched on a mysterious journey to Italy.”
Biddy Leigh is under-cook at Mawton Hall. She wants to marry her childhood sweetheart Jem, leave the Hall and run a tavern with him. But then her new mistress turns her world upside-down. The new Lady Carinna is unwell and must go abroad for better weather. Biddy is forced to go with her new mistress, leaving Jem behind. They first travel to London where Biddy meets her mistress’s younger brother to whom she is attracted. As they travel, Biddy learns her mistress’ secrets. Her life may be in danger. Biddy is smart and can write. She documents her adventures and recipes.
An Appetite for Violets is part mystery, part cookbook, and set in 18th century Europe. The author places recipes at the beginning of each chapter. The culinary aspect of the book adds to the story and there are surprises but sometimes so many things are going on that it can be confusing.
“I became obsessed with historical cookery,” says Bailey. “I originally started baking to save money and feed my son, by making local English specialities like those featured in The Great British Baking Show, such as Bakewell Tart, gingerbread and roly-polys. When I had more opportunities to travel, I became fascinated by foreign cuisine and one day entered a Merchant Gourmet contest with a Spanish dish for a Smoky Austrian Stew. I was amazed to win and the prize was a cookery course in Provence, France.”
Bailey says her most unexpected praise was from the author Fay Weldon. “She said I had created a new genre, Culinary Gothic,” says Bailey. “As my twin loves are historical food and the Gothic atmosphere of novels such as Jane Eyre and Rebecca, I am over the moon.”
In 2013 Bailey became Writer in Residence at a tiny 17th century cottage offered by The Hosking Houses Trust at Stratford-upon-Avon. In 2011 she was given a Creative Artist Residency Scholarship in an eco-house in a palm forest at Muriwai, New Zealand.
An Appetite for Violets is Bailey’s first novel. It has yet to be optioned for TV or film. Bailey has written books under the pseudonym Laura Bloom. The Wedding Diaries is a humorous journal of the planning and celebration of her marriage. One of her money-saving attempts was to bake her own white chocolate wedding cake. In 2007 she wrote The Grown-up Gap Year Diaries, about her travels to Indonesia, where her mother was born and her Dutch family had lived since 1768.
Martine Bailey won the Merchant Gourmet Recipe Challenge and was a former UK Dessert Champion, cooking at Le Meurice in Paris. Her recipes have appeared in Good Housekeeping, Olive magazine, and Green and Black’s Chocolate Recipes.
Bailey has finished her second novel, The Penny Heart, that is set in the 1790s in the north of England, Australia and New Zealand, in which a former Botany Bay convict is unwittingly employed by a naïve young wife at a remote Hall in Yorkshire.
Martine Bailey is based in Chester and was born in Lancashire.
An Appetite for Violets by Martine Bailey. Hardcover, 400 pages, Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (January 13, 2015), Language: English, ISBN: 9781250056917 $ 26.99
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