Lilla's Feast : A True Story of Food, Love, and War in the Orient

Rating:
Summary: A Life of Hardship, Lived As Well as Possible
Review: A loving tribute to a great-grandmother I would have liked to have met, but who lived a life I'm glad I skipped.

Born in China in 1882, she lived in China, India and England during times of great change. No longer young, she and her husband were imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II. During the imprisonment Lilla dreamed of food. In her mind she composed a cookbook. A cookbook that is today in the Imperial War Museum in London. It's a cookbook of traditional foods, of oriental foods, a cookbook of dreams to replace the starvation in the camp.

The book is a biography of Lilla, but more than that it is a picture of a time long past that is forever gone. Besides the cookbook and family records, Ms. Osborne draws on newspaper clippings and other historical information to give a picture of life in those times, in those places. It makes for fascinating reading.