Dinner for Dickens

Catherine Dickens, under the pseudonym of Lady Maria Clutterbuck, wrote a little book called What Shall we Have for Dinner? Satisfactorily Answered by Numerous Bills of Fare for from Two to Eighteen Persons in 1851. It had two subsequent editions in 1852 and 1854. The foreword was contributed (anonymously) by her husband, Charles. Susan Rossi-Wilcox reprints this work and contributes an engaging study of the domestic arrangements of the Dickens household together with a culinary commentary on the recipes and foodstuffs mentioned in the original work.