Thursday … for Tea
I am always on the lookout for a book about tea. Lately looking more closely at the design of books and particularly fond of the books I remember as a child. In the 1950s we didn’t have television and relied fully on the expertise of the illustrators of books and comics. We never doubted their ability and access to knowledge. It is only with our new found knowledge that we can question and criticise the books that primed our curiosity the the middle of the last century!
So when I come across works from then I am lifted to another world; along with its fact, fiction, propaganda and illustrations.
This Puffin book the story of tea published in 1947 … tells us of Dr Samuel Johnson a great writer and a shameless tea-drinker in the 18th century and the Duchess of Bedford in the next 100 years started the fashion of afternoon tea that was to become a worldwide practice because she got the ‘sinking’ feeling between lunch and dinner. She invented a new meal … good woman I say!
Anne Skibulits tells us of tea clippers, Boston tea party and smugglers and the introduction of tea to India. She tells the story of Ceylon, famous for its coffee until in the 1860s when a plant disease wiped out the entire crop; and goes on to say how the British were able to plant tea plants and Ceylon went on to be a great Empire tea producer. There is also much about the art of tea in China where it all began … Lovely ‘stories’
I will get a copy to add to my collection …
Coat Hanger Doll's House 