Until I read "¡Tango!", most of what I knew from tango was what was told by instructors, including Daniel Trenner, Brooke Burdett, half a dozen Argentine nationals, an equal number of Canadians, and a Belgian. It was exciting to get all the information I needed in one place. Tango is more than just music and dance. It is a cultural phenomenon that began in the barrios and bordellos of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and spread throughout the world. At the base of this cultural phenomenon is the relationship between a man and a woman. Tango is not just an American or South American phenomenon. It has spread throughout the world, and is popular in such diverse countries as Finland and Turkey, as well as those areas where it evolved.

The text of the book is outstanding and well documented. I was pleased with the choice of artwork, old and contemporary photographs, and page layout. It gave me a great understanding of the tango as a cultural phenomenon. There is an excellent bibliography and the text is referenced with footnotes for those who wish to go to some original sources. I am one of those people who are always looking for recommendations for music, and I was pleased to see a two-page listing of tangos, which are available on compact disc. For those who travel, there is a listing of international tango centers. It is an incomplete list, but it would be helpful for those who travel a lot for business or pleasure.

If you like tango, this would be a good book to start your collection. Then you can proceed with "Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzola."

For a person just discovering the Argentine tango (or who wants to), this is an interesting, beautiful, coffee table book. It's filled with gorgeous illustrations and photographs, as well as poetry, lyrics and fun, historical tidbits about the music & history. It rambles, but that just makes it more fun to open it up and start reading from anywhere. It's been the kind of book that has made even my non-tango friends interested in the dance and cultures behind it.

To correct a comment in a review on this site - the brilliant, talented Olivia Manning was not a friend of the thoroughly unlikable, secretive Elizabeth David. Read the book to find out why. As for David herself, a graphologist summed her up when she was 17 - "she does not shine, she absorbs". A taker, not a giver in other words, and this book certainly does not contain any examples of her alleged charm.

When friends and relatives and acquaintances gathered together Sept. 10, 1992 to memorialize Elizabeth David, they shared bottles of Macon Prisse 1991 and Morgan Chateau Gaillard 1991, as well as conversation. Artemis Cooper, author of 'WRITING AT THE KITCHEN TABLE: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF ELIZABETH DAVID suggests David would have approved. In the space of several decades, David had revolutionized cooking and meal preparation in Britain and introduced the British to really fine wines. Like her counterpart in America-Julia Child-David had no idea she would cause such a stir when she began to write articles about French, Italian, and other Mediterranean cuisines after WWII. David's notion that one could cook and eat other people's food-a multiethnic moment if there ever was one-was downright avant garde in the 1950s.

Cooper covers David's (nee Elizabeth Gwynne) life from her early days on the family estate in Wales, through WWII when she worked for the British in Egypt, to her amazing career as an author of books on food and food preparation. Before, during, and after WWI, David lived in Italy, the Levant, Egypt, and India where she learned how to make many local dishes and to appreciate "home grown" foods we call organic today. When Ms. David began to write about her dishes on her kitchen table, rationing was in still in force in Britain. Nevertheless, her first book on French country cooking was a hit. She then went on to write a number of books and many articles focused on what various people grow, cook, and eat.

Elizabeth David certainly lived in interesting times. A most intriguing aspect of Cooper's biography is her skillful placement of David within her age, a period during which the social mores of the UK changed somewhat dramatically. David had many interesting friends, including the writers Lawrence Durrell and Norman Douglas. Her book agent was Paul Scott, author of the RAJ QUARTET, and Olivia Manning, who wrote the Balkan and Levant trilogies known collectively as THE FORTUNES OF WAR was a friend from her days in Egypt. If you enjoy biographies as social history, I recommend ELIZABETH DAVID.

When I purchased this book, I had no idea who Elizabeth David was, but as a writer I couldn't resist reading about such a successful cookbook author. Artemis Cooper sorted through an immense amount of material and produced a wonderful story of a woman and the times that created her.
Born well-to-do in Britain, Elizabeth David started life basically ignored by her parents, and grew into a dilettante. With some bad judgement she ended up in the wrong place (Italy) toward the beginning of World War II, and spent years being exposed to a completely different kind of food than she had known in England. So one of the "bad" events in her life helped guide her to cookery writing.
The biographer has a lovely writing style, and fills in the bits quoted from letters and interviews very smoothly with narrative explanations. For example, Artemis writes "Robin Fedden invited Elizabeth to Chantemesle, some fifty miles northwest of Paris, where his parents lived. On one side of the house was the River Seine, winding between little green islands alive with birds, and on the other, the abrupt ascent of a dry limestone escarpment. Cherry and apricot trees stood about the house. 'It was beautiful there. I have never forgotten it,' Elizabeth wrote. Perhaps it was then that Robin proposed to her; many years later, she admitted to Robin's daughter Frances that she and her father had been engaged." The biographer does this throughout the book, turning one little quote into a lyrical paragraph (though if you think this sample was overdone, then you probably won't like this book).
By following Elizabeth's life, I learned that food rationing remained in place in England until the mid 1950's, and what horrible things can happen to an author when the rights to her books pass to other publishers than the ones she originally signs with (shudder!). While the story lagged for me when she returned home and began writing cookbooks, other readers who are more familiar with her and the people in her life will likely disagree.
On a personal note, I resolved to learn from some of Elizabeth's mistakes. Much of the unhappiness in her life stemmed from her personal weaknesses. A very rigid woman, she had trouble seeing things from another person's perspective. This allowed her the joy of being right, but separated her from other people.
Although a rather dense read, this book is overall very enjoyable.