Small Fires

'[Rebuilds] something epic from morsels of funny memoir, acute social criticism and food writing the likes of which you'll never have read before. ... Rich in pleasure and revelation.' - Observer

'A manifesto for reclaiming cooking as an intellectual... a rewarding book that stayed with me - and, like all brilliant food writing, it made me think twice about what I choose to eat and who I eat it with... a brave, honest book' - Sunday Times

'A radical rethinking of just what goes on in the kitchen... Brave enough to hurt feelings, and delicious enough for no one to care' - New York Times

'In this slim, spicy, genre-defining work, Rebecca May Johnson spatchcocks the division between intellectual and domestic labor... Blending humor and academic citation, poetic lineation, and personal reverie, this inquiry into the nature of cooking is as delightfully messy as the process itself-some serious food for thought' - Oprah Daily


'An intense, thought-provoking enquiry into the very nature of cooking' - Nigella Lawson


'Witty, provoking and truly delicious, a radical feast of flavours and ideas' - Olivia Laing


'In Small Fires, Johnson explores how the food we make and the ways we make it-and then the stories we tell about making it-shape who we are. . . . Mixing deeply personal anecdotes with more complex theory, Small Fires is at once relatable and mind-expanding' - Vogue US

'Possesses an intellectual fleet footedness and exuberance akin to the writing of Deborah Levy or Rebecca Solnit, as sentences skip between mischievous punning and impassioned agitation... the enthusiasm of the writing here is generous, embracing and emboldening' - i news

'Insightful, radical, beautiful' - Rachel Roddy



'A smart, creative and thoughtful book: it challenges us to think more about how and why we cook, and confounds our expectations of what food writing can be' - Ruby Tandoh


'A book that asks profound and serious questions while also being musical, erotic, and deeply pleasurable' - Katherine Angel


'Liberating... a new way to write about food' - Jonathan Nunn