Eventually though, you’ll wonder what classic cuisines you might experience while you discover the history and culture of England.

It’s best eaten with either ketchup or brown sauce as an accompaniment, and it really sets you up for the whole day. Not satisfied by ‘top sites’ and ticklist routes, we find the stories that go deeper and live longer in your mind.A resolve to be a giant among men, to conquer, plunder and seize the greatness that he thinks is his right. A much-used word, karma is loosely understood as a system of checks and balances in our lives, of good actions and bad deeds, of good thoughts and bad intentions. There’s a clear love here for teatime treats (“Afternoon tea may be the only meal we take that is purely and utterly for pleasure”) and for stodge (“Is there something in our demeanour, our national psyche, which makes heavy, rather bland food sit so comfortably with us? I had a pang of memory when he talked about visiting his aunt in a home and noticing that one of the fellow residents had put her hand down in a plate of custard. Though quite why liking or not liking a staggeringly salty, yeast-derived spread only edible in minute quantities should be a sign of one's patriotism is debatable.

Mr Slater has collected short vignettes and essays where he reminisces, celebrates or ridicules some of the most celebrated and some of the quirkier aspects of the eating habits of the British(despite it having England in the title). Finally, we’re beginning to hit that time of the year when the mind doesn’t turn to mists and mellow fruitfulness, but to stews, steamed puddings and all manner of stodgy warming goodness. As Slater points out, the British have a relationship with food which is quite unlike that of any other nation -- for many years, we were reluctant to discuss food matters (leaving culinary discussion to, for instance, the French), but we now appear to be in the grip of a national food obsession, with program after program on television and -- inevitably -- a host of books on the subject.

This factsheet will help Nursery practitioners have a positive influence not only on the nutrition of young children, but also in developing the attitudes children have towards food. There are smells that just the whiff of can bring the memories from childhood rushing back, whether it is nail varnish and the hint of pear drops or the sulphurous odour of cabbage from school dining rooms. Additional items can be added such as ham, green salad, hard boiled eggs, and apple, along with some sort of chutney. Nigel Slater understands as well as anybody how to turn ingredients into a meal, but his big thing is his grasp of how a meal can turn into a new confection in the mind.