Sheila Hardy - The Real Mrs Beeton: The Story of Eliza Acton

For Jasmine, Mina and Katie Hardy with my love

O ver the years I have been truly amazed by the tremendous kindness of complete strangers who have not only responded to my sometimes strange requests for information, but have gone out of their way to help. This time the response has been overwhelming. When I first dreamed up the idea of the biography of Eliza Acton I tentatively approached Elizabeth Ray, the food writer and editor of the Southover Editions of Eliza Actons work, for her opinion. She not only gave her blessing but also most generously gave me her own notes and continued to answer my many questions. In the process I have gained a friend. Emboldened, and knowing of Delia Smiths declared admiration for Eliza Acton, I asked her, and she kindly agreed, to write the foreword. Jyll Bradley, the playwright, generously arranged with the BBC for me to have a recording of her play, Before Beeton: the Eliza Acton Story. In Sarah Death I discovered another Acton fan; the translator of Fredrika Bremers work from the Swedish, she not only gave me free access to relevant articles, but also an introduction to an author who was unknown to me. Similarly, Dr Annie Gray went out of her way to share her enthusiasm for Elizas cooking, as well as answering my questions. No longer able to travel to do my own research, I have had to rely on people like Nancy Fulford of Reading University, who scoured the ledgers and account books in the Longman Specials Collections for entries about Eliza. Mr & Mrs Anthony Wilson of the Tonbridge Historical Society kindly gave their expert knowledge, as did Beverley Matthews, senior librarian of Tonbridge School. My sincere and grateful thanks to them and also to the following for their help and encouragement: Pamela Henderson, Peggy Troll and Gill Squirrel studied some of the poems and gave their opinion of them. Glennis & Roger Pritchard and Mollie & Gordon Bolton combed the churchyards in Hastings and Grundisburgh for me. Dr E. Cockayne again helped with medical queries. Alan Best found useful material in the newspapers. Tony Copsey allowed me the use of illustrations from his collection, while Michael Riordan, Annabel Peacock and Andrew Lusted all made valuable contributions. The Ipswich branch of the Suffolk Record Office and the East Sussex Record Office at Lewes were most helpful, as was the British Library, Camden Borough Library and the Camden Registrars, and Ann Bagnall of The Southover Press. Special thanks too to The State Library of South Australia, The National Library of Australia and the University of California Davis, all of whom offered not only prompt help and kindness but furthered my amazement at the wonders of email and the Internet. On a very personal note, I could not have completed this work without the assistance of my three special research assistants Patricia Burnham, as always, was in at the beginning and undertook a great deal of the genealogical research; Fiona Scorer took care of the research in London and much else, and then, just when I most needed help, a chance meeting with Rachel Field led to her offering to undertake additional local research, and, as it turned out, much more beside. To each and every one of you, including probably the most important, Sophie Bradshaw, who took the risk that Eliza Actons story should reach the public, please accept my deepest gratitude.

BY D ELIA S MITH

W hen I first received this manuscript I could hardly believe what was before me! Why? Let me begin by quoting my own words: Eliza Acton is the best cookery writer in the English language. Her book Modern Cookery for Private Families, first published in 1845, has been a great inspiration and had a great influence on me throughout my own years of cookery writing.

Yet, while I have studied her work very closely and often included her recipes in my own books, I have never had the least idea of who she was or where she came from. Though until now little has been known, Sheila Hardy has painstakingly researched and unravelled the mysterious background to this very accomplished and most significant cookery writer.

I personally am supremely grateful to have a much clearer understanding, and am pleased to have discovered a lot of what I had surmised to be affirmed. One thing I was convinced of was Eliza Acton never wrote a recipe she hadnt cooked herself. What I did not know was that her book took ten years to complete. She was a gifted writer and communicator, which is now explained by the fact that she started life as a poet and teacher.

I am also thrilled to discover some similarities between my heroine and myself. She quite definitely had a very similar mission: to help the inexperienced in a clear and simple way; in her own words which no other cookery book had yet done. How I remember when I first started cooking great cooks, great cookbooks, but I was so often left wondering Eliza was actually the very first cookery writer to list precise amounts of ingredients at the end of her recipes.

In my early days the biggest puzzle for me was how on earth Mrs Beetons book managed to utterly eclipse Elizas far superior work. Now at last all is explained. I am deeply grateful to Sheila Hardy. This is an extremely important archive, not just for now but for anyone in future generations wishing to study the history of cooking in England.

I t is ironic in an age when fast-food outlets flourish and supermarkets vie with each other to sell ready-prepared meals that can either be heated in a microwave oven or boiled in plastic bags in a saucepan; and when working women are said to have no time to cook a meal from scratch, if indeed they even know how to, that designer kitchens should be a major selling point in new houses and apartments and DIY chain stores sell dream kitchens which once installed get very little use. What is even more difficult to understand is the plethora of TV programmes which feature cooking. Watching someone else cook has become a spectator sport. We sit in comfort on our sofas to be entertained by amateurs giving dinner parties, celebrity chefs showing how to create exotic dishes, or we are invited to share the agony of contestants pitting their skills against each other in a sort of X Factor for cooks. And when we are tired of watching, we can turn to the books produced by the TV chefs to gaze in wonder at the colourful illustrations and tantalise our taste buds as we read recipes, which we will never attempt to make. Those who do cook will have a shelf of such books but probably only one old favourite to which they continually refer. Cookery books make up a large part of todays publishing market, but few of them will have the success and longevity as the two major works of Eliza Acton.

Most modern cookery writers and chefs accept that they owe much to the work done by Eliza Acton in the mid-years of the nineteenth century. Indeed, there are some who claim that she still remains the best cookery writer. Although her reputation was for a time eclipsed by Mrs Beeton, it is now acknowledged that that lady, during her short career, shamelessly plagiarised Actons work while her publisher husband developed and manipulated his wifes name into a lucrative market brand. However, Actons work continued to be published well into the twentieth century both in this country and abroad. And, again ironically, it has been the growing interest in celebrity chefs and cookery writers which has helped revive Eliza Actons reputation and standing, leading to the publication in recent years of excellent reprints of her books.