Book description
This enchanting, juicy history takes us from the pineapple's origins
in the Amazon rainforests to its first tasting by Columbus in
Guadeloupe and its starring role on the royal dinner tables of Europe.
In the eighteenth-century this spectacular fruit reigned supreme:
despite the fact that, at first, to cultivate just one cost the same
as a new coach, every great house soon boasted its own steaming pits
filled with hundreds upon hundreds of pineapple plants. As the Prada
handbag of its day, a real-life, homegrown pineapple was a powerful
status symbol, so much so that at first, it was extremely unusual
actually to eat the fruit. The image appeared on gateposts, on
teapots, furniture and wallpaper.
A new phase opened when growers in the Caribbean began supplying
pineapples in the 1840s and later the first canning factory was built
in Hawaii. As the story rolls on, through the heyday of pineapple
chunks and cocktails, right up to the fashions of today,it touches on
pineapples and sex, pineapples and empire, pineapples in art.
Why is the pineapple so special? In one surprising sense it is
indeed ideal. Made up of hundreds of separate fruitlets, its spirals
embody the gradations of the Golden Mean - it is mathematically
perfect. But it is more than that - for years a focus of traveller's
tales, it is a treasure of sight and scent and taste. Packed with
fascinating illustrations, this delicious book sees Fran Beauman
explore the life and lore of the king of fruits: scholarly, witty and
fun, it is a true hamper of delights.
Fran Beauman graduated with a first class degree in History from
Cambridge and now writes and presents for television. Her passion for
pineapples began with a childhood visit to the pineapple-shaped garden
retreat at Dunmore Park in Scotland and has taken her across the world.
This is her first book.
