About this item
Afternoon Tea: A History explores the development of the afternoon tea meal, diving deeper than the popular tale of the Duchess of Bedford's afternoon gatherings to find the meals that inspired those early afternoon teas. Julia Skinner carefully separates the fact and lore around the meal and sets the story of afternoon tea within its historic contexts. Recognizing that a meal's birth and life never happen in a vacuum, the book sets aside the already well-documented conversations surrounding tea etiquette, instead exploring the social contexts that made the meal possible and popular, moving it from one small subset of the population to a widespread and beloved phenomenon, one that nearly died out at the end of the 20th century before experiencing a resurgence in the 21st.
About the Author
Julia Skinner, PhD, is a food historian, fermenter, visual artist, nature enthusiast, and generally curious person. Julia's work is all about the connection between different realms of thought, and reconnecting ourselves to the magic of the everyday. She lives in Atlanta, GA with a menagerie of animals, rooms full of books, and a garden that's a certified wildlife habitat. Follow her writing at rootkitchens. substack. com
