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Rating: 
Summary: No ordinary food book
Review: I'm now reading *Pike* for the third time. The first time I heard of it was when browsing through a Daedalus catalogue. (Sorry, Amazon, for the mention of a rival!) The description made it sound pleasant but no more remarkable than any of a thousand other such literary works on the joys of food. I didn't buy it, a friend did; he lent it to me, I immediately regretted not having bought it. And why? Well, it's not original in concept or style, just marvelously done. Take the eleven pages of "In Praise of Pigs", for example. It starts out with a lengthy quotation from an 1807 work, a description of a "most extraordinary Animal", named SLUT ("given in consequence of soiling herself in a Bog"): a hunting pig. It goes on to trace the love of pigs in English literature: Arthur Mee's *Children's Encyclopaedia*, Wodehouse's *A Pelican at Blandings*. There's a short description of Loftus' own personal encounters with pigs. And then a mind-boggling description of shepherds' pigs, on a farm-cum-museum on the Gower peninsula (Wales): too far-fetched to be true, perhaps, but I eventually found that yes, this place exists. And the end of the chapter reflects the end of many pigs: a recipe for sausages and red cabbage, with a suggested wine: "This is the perfect dish for the Syrah grape, whether a modest Cotes du Vivarais (Domaine de Belvezet), an Australian Shiraz or a good Cornas from the northern Rhone. Heartwarming stuff." On reflection, this chapter is atypically literary. Most have more first-hand observation--but none is predictable. The book was published in the US by North Point, which I believe has closed down. Some discerning company should bring it back. (I rate it as 9 rather than 10 because it doesn't go on long enough and because I for one seldom read "10" reviews.)
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