Elisabeth Luard

I am an author, journalist and broadcaster who writes (mostly) about food and recipes in their historical, geographical and social context. My work as a cookery writer includes about fifteeen cookbooks and  four memoirs with recipes: Family Life ; Still Life ; My Life as a Wife and Squirrel Pie (all in print with Bloomsbury). And just for good measure, a couple of doorstopper novels - Emerald  (WHSmith's  "Thumping Good Read Award") and Marguerite, both published by Bantam in the 1980's. 

 

Grub Street has recently republished European Peasant Cookery (for the 13-part tv series based on the book, see The Rich Tradition @TalkingofFood.com), European Seasonal Food, Tapas, The Flavours of Andalucia (including my own watercolours throughout); Preserving, Potting and Pickling, a companion volume to European Peasant Cookery first published as The Barricaded Larder, is out from Grub Street at the end of April, 2020 in a brand new edition with my own ink-and-watercolour illustrations. 

 

As a journalist, my back-story includes several years (each) as the cookery columnist at Country Living, House & Garden, Waitrose Food Illustrated, The Field, The Scotsman and the Daily Telegraph (with occasional forays into lifestyle pieces for the Daily Mail).  These days I contribute a monthly cookery-column with illustration to The Oldie magazine and am the current Chair of The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.

 

As a bird-painter  in an earlier life - I trained (briefly) at Byam Shaw and City and Guilds in Kennington -  I had two one-woman shows at The Tryon Gallery (Cork Street, London) in the 1980's and contributed a couple of owl-prints (barn and tawny) to the WWF.   As a botanical artist, I worked for Kew in 1970's and for the great biologist Miriam Rothschold in the 1980's and 90's (providing b&w's for  her Butterfly Gardener). Since then, I continue to illustrate my own work whenever I get the chance and record my travels with sketchbook and watercolours.

 

In the spirit of tidying-up and sizing down, I'm putting up some of my work for sale through the Shop...you'll find it on the drop-down menu at the top.

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STOP PRESS!  I've just started a weekly newsletter on Substack - very exciting!  - based on my cookstory cartoons. It's free to join - you just have to provide your email for accountability and so that it comes straight to your in-box. Later I may add extra content behind a pay-wall - but not yet!

You'll find me at www.elisabethluard.substack.com

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Photo by Clare Richardson.