Essential Elizabeth David (Christmas)

These recipes have been selected exclusively for ckbk by Elizabeth David's nephew, kitchen designer Johnny Grey.

From the Preface:
"These are a selection of the Christmas recipes I have used over the years from my aunt's book, Elizabeth David's Christmas. All have a winter as well as a Christmas feel to them and each has a special role as part of our family traditions as any good Christmas recipe should. My aunt's inspiration for writing this book was her solidarity with the women she saw bogged down by Christmas work—I suspect chief among these my mother with her five children. Elizabeth David points out in her Introduction that she really liked spending Christmas on her own, making an exception when visiting my family, her younger sister and all the children. She would bring round a stylish hamper of goodies on Christmas day and stay to eat with us. Initially this was lunch, later in my childhood dinner. She lived with her other younger sister Felicité, who would come along too. We all laughed a lot—Elizabeth David was witty—and Christmas spirit flowed."