In 2005 a meeting was held somewhere in Kentish Town or perhaps Peckham that would reverberate down the ages. The meeting was chaired by a shadowy figure known only as Malcolm Eggs. His aim was to fight mediocre breakfasts within the capital. He brought together a crack team of writers, gardeners, students and out-of-work musicians. Everyone dropped their legal names and adopted nommes de guerre such as Ed Benedict, H. P. Seuss and Dr Sigmund Fried. Thus the London Review of Breakfasts was born. Amazingly it was a great success, inspired a legion of imitators and quickly became a target of the powerful breakfast lobby.
Now there is a book and rather than limit themselves to London, Malcolm Eggs and the LRB team have taken on the massive task of defining and describing breakfast itself. So along with a history of coffee, recipes for sausages and how to boil the perfect egg, there are essays on breakfasts in literature, breakfast and class, and Freud’s breakfast dream. It’s a book to cook from and to savour in bed. As a contributor to the book and the website, I can with all disinterest say that it’s timeless masterpiece. Please buy many copies.
The Breakfast Bible by Seb Emina & Malcolm Eggs is published by Bloomsbury 11th Februrary £16.99. You can read an extract here.
Mostly curious to know what your nom de guerre was!
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It was Blake Pudding. I think that was meant to be secret but all our identities are now blown.