The cook, food writer and restaurateur picks her favourites. Her latest book, "Mexican Table", is out now, and she will be speaking at the Queen's Park Book Festival on 31 August.
A Visit to Don Otavio
Sybille Bedford, 1960
Bedford's first published work is an extraordinary travelogue chronicling her intrepid travels through Mexico in the 1950s. The descriptions of the food they eat at Don Otavio's are a sheer delight; it was the first time I had heard of another European extolling Mexican food, and I couldn't get enough of it.
The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy, 1997
A stunning novel about a pair of twins, about love, loss and the impact of colonialism. I am a twin, so this book felt acutely personal (I had also just come back from Kerala, where it is set). I grew up on Latin American magical realism, which chimes beautifully with Indian literature of the same style, so I was completely won over.
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Titles available at The Week Bookshop
