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Kevin Geddes: Keep Calm and Fanny On – The Many Careers of Fanny Cradock

The autobiography of Fanny Cradock written by Kevin Geddes.

£19.99

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SKU: 978-1-78196-339-5 Categories: Biography & Non-Fiction, Books Tag: Winter Sale
  • Description
  • Additional information
  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Description

Mention the name ‘Fanny Cradock’ to anyone, young or old, and they tend to simply snigger, make an innuendo-heavy reference to doughnuts or squirm at the thought of long-forgotten meals disguised under layer-upon-layer of ever-increasingly bizarre food-colourings and flourishes of garnish. She is, at least, remembered. She was hard to forget.

Her legacy collapsed faster than you could say ‘freshly baked soufflé’ when she died twenty-five years ago. It became popular to talk her down; laughing at her appearance captured as if in aspic on YouTube, discussing the ‘shocking’ way she treated her assistants and husband-come-sidekick, Johnnie, repeating rumours that she ‘couldn’t cook anyway’, was rude to everyone she ever met and spent her days swanning around her kitchen in elaborate ball-gowns barking orders as she went…

However, there is much more to Fanny Cradock than even the most elaborately pencilled-in eyebrow might suggest. The ‘real’ story is just as weird, wonderful and wacky as the myths that persist…

Fanny Cradock had many careers; she was the mistress of reinvention before Madonna had even considered it. She was an entrepreneur, business-woman, activist, journalist, food critic, travel guru, food demonstrator, fiction writer, children’s author, cookbook creator, media personality and, as she is most remembered, a television cook – the first ‘celebrity chef’. Fanny deliberately created the over-the-top persona which catapulted her into the living rooms of millions of British viewers in the 1950s, riding high as the ‘television celebrity chef’ until the 1970s, enabling her to remain in the hearts and minds of the public to this day.

Keep Calm and Fanny On – The Many Careers of Fanny Cradock takes an amusing, entertaining and lively look at her life and work. Expertly and meticulously researched in her own archives and others, through speaking to those who knew her best – friends, family, colleagues, and those fortunate enough to experience her charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent over the decades.

With a Foreword from Nicholas Parsons and contributions from her assistants and family members as well Dame Esther Rantzen, Gyles Brandreth, Sir David Attenborough, Nick Owen, Prue Leith, Diana Henry and Evangeline Evans, Keep Calm and Fanny On – The Many Careers of Fanny Cradock re-draws, re-evaluates and re-tells the remarkable story of Fanny Cradock.

Additional information

Weight .75 kg

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kevin grew up in a small town in the south-west of Scotland, a vivid 1970s world of bright orange kitchens, hallucinogenic yellow flower-patterned wallpaper and unexplainable blue iced birthday cakes – learning to cook from old books and from watching television cooking programmes. So, it’s no surprise he later became an obsessive Fanny Cradock fan, manically collecting and joyously celebrating all things Fanny. Realising there was nowhere on-line honouring Fanny Cradock, he set-up the blog, Keep Calm and Fanny On, dedicating a space to remember her in all her glory. Kevin has spent years cooking his way through her vibrant back catalogue and sharing the visual treats styled à la Cradock. The blog became a popular destination for lovers of all things retro, colourful and forgotten. Kevin has spent many years researching Fanny’s life, dedicating his Masters dissertation to uncovering her impact, which lay hidden for years following her death in her own archive. Kevin has had several Fanny Cradock articles published, regularly gives presentations at international conferences about Fanny Cradock and has recently started on the long road of researching a PhD, looking at the history and development of television cooking programmes. Kevin spends too much time on Twitter sharing his passion, his blue cakes and his reminisces about Fanny, establishing a strong community of people determined to Bring Retro Back and single-handedly saving the Glacé Cherry industry from bankruptcy. Kevin lives in Edinburgh with his long-suffering partner, who regularly enjoys the delights of Fanny Cradock that Kevin recreates. Sometimes.

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