Fire and Feast

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JANE GRIGSON AWARD 2026

This is a food book like no other, a history of a secret people you have lived with side by side for generations, but never really known. It’s the story of an esoteric culture, beliefs and customs, told through its food and family.

Generations of Gypsies have cooked dishes shaped by land, movement, scarcity and season – yet these recipes were always passed down through oral traditions. There is no grand chorus of British Gypsy food writing or way of life. In this captivating memoir, Caleb Botton does what hasn’t been done before: he tells the authentic story of Romany Gypsy life, through the food he grew up cooking and eating and the people he shared it with. The real life: uneven, smoky, shaped by memory, weather and working hands.

Whether it's a meat stew, Gypsy soda bread or bacon rasher pudding, each recipe is a small act of cultural recollection. Part history, part memoir and rooted in remembrance, this book will be a testimony of how an often misunderstood, vilified and romanticised people move, endure and survive.