Toast

The Story of a Boy's Hunger

By: Nigel Slater

Narrated by: Nigel Slater

Now a critically-acclaimed play at London’s The Other Palace Theatre.

‘Remarkable' Observer

'Acutely observed, poignant and beautifully written' Daily Telegraph

‘My mother is scraping a piece of burned toast out of the kitchen window, a crease of annoyance across her forehead. This is not an occasional occurrence. My mother burns the toast as surely as the sun rises each morning.’

Toast is Nigel Slater’s award-winning biography of a childhood remembered through food. Whether recalling his mother’s surprisingly good rice pudding, his father’s bold foray into spaghetti and his dreaded Boxing Day stew, or such culinary highlights as Arctic Roll and Grilled Grapefruit (then considered something of a status symbol in Wolverhampton), this remarkable memoir vividly recreates daily life in 1960s suburban England.

Likes and dislikes, aversions and sweet-toothed weaknesses form a fascinating backdrop to Nigel Slater’s incredibly moving and deliciously evocative portrait of childhood, adolescence and sexual awakening.

©2023 Nigel Slater (P)2023 HarperCollins UK

Critic reviews

"Moving, funny, and finely crafted, this is a true gem." (Independent)
"[Toast] achieves a remarkable freshness...and [Nigel Slater] also reveals a gift for doleful, Alan Bennet-like comedy." (The Guardian)

not quite what I have expected

did well describing every bit of detail and wonderfully narrating the material. yet the content was not quite what you would expect of a autobiography of this guy!

Moving and makes you hungry

A superhero origins story of how a lonely boy who lost his mother ultimately became one of the great food writers.

As expected, Slater writes beautifully concise yet evocative prose, and this book will give those of us who grew up in Britain in the 70s multiple Proustian flashbacks of long-forgotten food items.

Slater isn't a particularly good reader (too many wrongly-stressed words for my taste), but it doesn't matter too much because his personal stake in the writing makes it extremely moving.