Modern Cookery for Private Families was first published in 1845. Eliza Acton expanded it ten years later, enlarging a number of sections and adding an interesting chapter on foreign and Jewish cookery. This reprint is of the expanded edition and includes all the splendid engravings of the original.

Before Mrs Beeton there was Eliza Acton, whose crisp, clear, simple style and foolproof instructions established the format for modern cookery writing, leading to her being called 'the best writer of recipes in the English language' by Delia Smith. Including such English classics as suet pudding, raspberry jam, lemonade and 'superlative mincemeat' as well as evocatively-named creations like 'Threadneedle Street Biscuits', 'Baron Liebig's Beef Gravy' and 'Apple Hedgehog', these recipes advocate using the best produce available to create wholesome, inexpensive dishes that are still a pleasure to cook and eat today.

Eliza Acton is the forgotten hero of our culinary past. A debt of gratitude to her is what Delia Smith, Elizabeth David and Mrs Beeton have in common. She was the original and best: the first cook to write recipes in a clear, modern format, one of the few Victorian ladies whose legacy has lasted well into the twenty-first century and whose recipes are still used in thousands of kitchens today. In this absorbing first biography, Sheila Hardy creates a richly painted narrative of how a young woman produced the first cookery book for general use and changed history. She provides a rich background to Eliza's success, not only as the little-known mother of modern cookery, but as a poet and a campaigner for healthy eating. She introduced us to curry, chorizo and gluten-free diets 150 years before they became fashionable. She knew Charles Dickens, and her family life was possibly an inspiration for several of his plots. She had a fascinating career, and this brilliantly researched biography is a must for anyone interested in food and cookery, or simply as an insight into the life of a modern lady who was years ahead of her time.