Annie Gray

Dr Annie Gray is a food historian specialising in the Georgian, Victorian and early twentieth centuries. She’s a popular speaker and broadcaster and also works as a consultant to museums and heritage sites.

Annie is currently working on her first book, A Greedy Queen, due to be published with Profile Books in spring 2017 (shortlisted for the Jane Grigson Trust Award). She has also written for The Guardian online, BBC online and The Sun. You can find more of her writing on her website at anniegray.co.uk/writing

Annie is the resident food historian on BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet, and has appeared in the show since its inception, as well as contributing to The Food Programme, Today, and PM. Annie’s TV appearances include BBC Four’s Icing on the Cake and Home Comforts which aired in January 2015. Annie has also appeared on The One Show, Hidden Killers: The Victorian Home, The Great British Bake Off, Heston’s Great British Food, BBC Food and Drink and Newsnight. More recently, she has worked as consultant (and presenter) on Victorian Bakers, a 3 part living history documentary on BBC in November 2015.She was also the adviser on the BBC4 documentary Calf’s Heads and Coffee, which won a Guild of Food Writers Award.

Annie has worked in heritage for over ten years, both as a food historian, and also advising on domestic history and the lives of servants. She regularly dons period costume and works in character, portraying long-dead cooks to bring history to life. She also trains others, working to bring to life historic sites across the country. She’s available to talk on heritage interpretation and public history, below stairs life in the 18th to the 20th century, and of course her core area of the history of British food and dining from the Restoration onwards.

The Sweet Makers – new three-part series beginning Wednesday 19th July on BBC2

- Contact -

Tim Bates (tbates@pfd.co.uk)

and

Laura McNeill (lmcneill@pfd.co.uk)

+44(0)207 344 1033

Websites

http://www.anniegray.co.uk/

Twitter

@timhayward It's normal in Kings Lynn, though usually with a beanie hat and novelty tee.

@KeepCalmFannyOn Now I want to get Fanny in too... in Technicolor.

@rth_brighton Well, last year's version of it was quite a detailed sounding look at clay pipes, so........

Annie Gray on Twitter »

Publications

THE GREEDY QUEEN — Buy it here

What does it mean to eat like a queen? Elizabeth gorged on sugar, Mary on chocolate and Anne was known as ‘Brandy Nan’. Victoria ate all of this and more. The Greedy Queen celebrates Victoria’s appetite, both for food and, indeed, for life.

Born in May 1819, Victoria came ‘as plump as a partridge’. In her early years she lived on milk and bread under the Kensington system; in her old age she suffered constant indigestion yet continued to over-eat. From intimate breakfasts with the King of France, to romping at tea-parties with her children, and from state balls to her last sip of milk, her life is examined through what she ate, when and with whom. In the royal household, Victoria was surrounded by ladies-in-waiting, secretaries, dressers and coachmen, but below stairs there was another category of servant: her cooks. More fundamental and yet completely hidden, they are now uncovered in their working environment for the first time.

Voracious and adventurous in her tastes, Queen Victoria was head of state during a revolution in how we ate – from the highest tables to the most humble. Bursting with original research, The Greedy Queen considers Britain’s most iconic monarch from a new perspective, telling the story of British food along the way.

PUBLISHER: Profile Books

PUBLICATION DATE: 11 May 2017