This beautiful book, lavishly set and illustrated, is more a gastronomic promenade through the British Isles than a real cookbook. For there are recipes here— hundreds of them—on every page diligently gleaned by Mrs. Grigson in the kitchens of the best inns, in the files of renowned cooks, even in the memoirs of epicures of the past. But they somewhat pale in comparison with the rest of the text, an extremely literate and refined musing about British cookery, what and who make it what it is. Mrs. Grigson does not pretend that this is the greatest in the world, but she knows also that her country offers some of the best ingredients, in dairy products, fish, and game notably."I used to think...that salvation lay in improved cookery," she observes, "now I conclude that salvation lies in shopping ...for the best you can find." Indeed, besides miners' pasties, fishermen soups, or Irish stews, one will find here mostly elegant preparations for guinea fowl, with Madeira sauce or morrels, Mallard duck, quail, samphire, salmon. Most of these recipes are excellent and should be tried without fear of using good substitutes. But they do not actually represent everyday British cooking. There are two reasons for this, and one is that most of these recipes come from proven chefs. The second, which we offer as an hypothesis, applies to most British cookbooks: it seems to us that Great Britain may be one of the few countries in the world (possibly with Russia) where there never was a real osmosis between the cookery of the upper class (nobility, clergy, etc.) and that of the lower classes, so that none benefited from the experience of the others. We may have to go back once more to the Norman Conquest, the "pottage" of the Saxon shepherd and the roasted peacock of the foreign lord. Even if this were true, it does not explain why this cultural segregation has survived to this day. Mrs. Grigson, who writes regularly and intelligently about food, may give us an explanation in her next book. Meanwhile, British Cookery will delight all who have strolled through the old country and remember it with nostalgia.