Jane Grigson, the best cookery writer in my lifetime, would have been soproud of her daughter. Sophie Grigson has written twenty-odd excellent cookbooks, but I think this is the best of them. It is her first book for a decade and was obviously driven by a real love of her subjects, which are Puglia, people and food. It is witty, informative, fascinating and stuffed full of recipes you want to cook. Prue Leith Vivid, humorous and unsentimental, Sophie's portrait of modern Puglia, still steeped in old ways, is a delicious treat. Xanthe Clay OMFG! This beautiful book is transporting me there. I can't put it down. And the lack of chickens... I never bloody noticed! Matt Tebbutt Part travelogue, part recipe book, A Curious Absence of Chickens recounts a lone foodie's peregrinations through southern Italy with humour and candour.