Funny, sad, this book has it all! The food memories that it brought back to me. I thought it was very well written and would recommend it heartily.

This book is well written and interesting, though I am probably not the ideal target market. I don’t read the Guardian, watch Masterchef, and I’m not a foodie, so had not heard of Grace Dent. However I recognise a good story with lots of interest along the way.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this title. Foodies will love it!

Somehow despite Grace Dent's extensive career I was only vaguely aware of her as the Guardian's restaurant critic and not much else, but I'm glad I decided to read Hungry. It's a memoir with a lot going on - the difficulties of moving from working class to middle class, the heady days of 90s magazine journalism, and dealing with aging parents. It's also very, very funny. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I adored this book. Grace Dent’s memoir takes us from her childhood in Carlisle to her great success as a restaurant critic today. She is on fine, entertaining form on her childhood years; her home improvement obsessed mother, her father who appears to have left other families along the way before theirs, her less than successful school years. As the book moves through her career from early years at Chat magazine, through to Marie Claire and then newspaper journalism, her family’s stories run in parallel as her mother gets cancer and her father’s erratic behaviour becomes ever more worrying. When Grace finally decides she must move home to try and bring the family together and help to deal with a desperate situation it is incredibly moving. You feel every fear and every frustration with the management of her parents’ care acutely. Grace Dent is a fine writer and Hungry made me laugh out loud many times, yet almost brought me to tears at times too. It is also fascinating portrait of journalism, particularly food journalism, during the early eighties to the present day.

I enjoyed this book enormously but do wonder if having a childhood in the north west of England at a similar time to Grace Dent’s helped. I loved hearing the story of her upbringing and career to date. It’s a real rags to riches tale although she’d doubtless question the 'riches’ part. Her memoir is told in the Grace’s inimitable humerous style but very much focused on the food of the times she was writing about. There were points, especially in the childhood chapters, when I wondered if she’d compiled a list of every food item unique to the and somehow woven each and every one into the dialogue. I could almost imagine her having a bet with a mate to do this!

There was little about her relationships other than a brief mention of a husband at one point and occasional boyfriends were mentioned. But fair enough, it was refreshing not to have a 'kiss and tell all' book actually. The last few chapters about the health issues of her parents were very poignant. You could hear her frustration with the health system in trying get some formal recognition of her's father's dementia by professionals. So many of us have been in that situation and can relate to that. Grace and her younger brother, David's, endeavours and sacrifices to care for two very ailing parents in the past few years are admirable and I wish them all the best in these challenging years, not least 2020 itself.

A cracking good read as my Dad, who was of the ilk of Grace’s father, would have said.

With thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Prior to reading this book I confess to only having a vague idea of Grace Dent as a restaurant critic but I knew nothing of her career or her background and was drawn by the promise of an account of growing up in the 70s and 80s. Hungry chronicles Dent’s journey from a working class family and terraced house in Currock, Carlisle to her eventual hard-earned success as a journalist, broadcaster, teen author and restaurant critic. Best known as The Guardian’s food critic and for appearing on Masterchef: The Professional’s, Hungry is a warm, riotously funny and poignant account of family life, food and never losing sight of where you’ve come from. The writing is superb, at times heartfelt, honest and bittersweet and at others riotously funny as self-deprecating Dent pokes fun at herself and the industry she works in.

Dent’s book opens 317 miles and several decades away from the London where she made her name critiquing uber-trendy restaurants, in a suburb of Carlisle in 2008 and at the age of seven with her ex-army Liverpudlian dad, George, cooking tea for her and her younger brother. As she recounts childhood memories and family experiences, many shared over food, Hungry is a reminder of all things 1980s, from ‘playing out’, the arrival of superstores, staying up late to sneak a few minutes of The Kenny Everett Show, the introduction of Ready Brek right through to first lessons in how to cook and entertain courtesy of the Brownies hostess and cookery badges. Laughing her way through this and the fashion disasters of the era Dent also pertinently mentions the abundance of bright working class children who, unlike herself, got a disservice from state education in the 1980s and fell by the wayside. Dent’s determination to leave home took her to Stirling university where student writing, dogged determination and a refusal to say no were behind her arrival to work in London.

From her early days covering real-life features for Chat and Woman’s Weekly to appearing on late-night TV debate shows and programmes such as Britain’s Favourite Biscuit, the book covers Dent’s fortuitous opportunity covering a food critic vacancy at the Evening Standard and the beginning of her Grace and Flavour column. Also a writer of young adult novels and after achieving growing recognition of her talents as a comedy writer and columnist, Hungry covers everything prior to achieving her position as the Guardian’s restaurant critic. Dent’s admission that her modest background instilled a refusal to ever turn down work along with a willingness to knuckle down and get on with whatever life throws at you is refreshing. This is Dent’s extraordinary journey from the days of simply wanting to be full to moving in circles with people who believed the true goal was actually to taste food! The later stages tell of Dent’s mother’s fight against cancer and her father’s steady decline in the grip of vascular dementia and the family coming together again as Dent and her brother, David, care for their elderly parents.

A wonderful tribute to her own family life and a very honest and relatable account of the realities of ageing parents and dementia, Hungry is an irreverently funny and nostalgic warm hug of a book. An inspirational book by a truly down-to-earth and working class success story.

Started off well as i reminisced about food and life in the 70's 80's and 90's but got bored after that as the story was no interesting enough to keep me engaged.

I am a great fan of Grace Dent's work and this was a pleasure to read. It felt as if she was in the room with me, telling me all about her childhood and her adventures in the media. The sad decline of her beloved dad is poignant but touched with humour. An affectionate memoir which made me feel almost nostalgic for all the processed food of the late twentieth century. Post pandemic, I'm looking forward to reading Grace's sparky restaurant reviews again.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the ARC

A very open and honest memoir, full of nostalgia and memories of what we used to eat, and the voyage toward fine dining. I loved all the descriptions of food as it used to be before Supermarkets, adverts and the internet. The latter half evoked different memories as her beloved father succumbs to dementia.
Beautifully written, it shows her struggles to cope with caring, working, and even a private life..I have so much respect for her now and look forward to seeing her on MasterChef!

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this, I liked the blurb but, wasn’t very keen on the cover, it was only after reading a little that I knew I’d enjoy it. This is so enjoyable and interesting to read, I really enjoyed it. The complete honesty with which Grace describes her life growing up, her relationships with her family and how her career progresses are just so endearing. She speaks very candidly and honestly about how she feels out of her depth in certain restaurant situations; how she’s taught about the wine list from one of her peers and how her parents are more happy taking her to a Toby Carvery. Grace talks very openly and frankly about her parents health, and about dementia, about the very real struggles she faces to look after her them: you can feel just how much they mean to her. She might be a celebrity but, can talks so naturally and honestly about what really matters to her. This is a really enjoyable, simply lovely read!

Forgive the pun, but I absolutely ‘devoured’ Grace Dent’s memoir ‘Hungry’ - a delicious, culinary walk down memory lane, both for Grace and the reader.

Grace Dent grew up in Currock, a southern suburb of Carlisle, Cumbria. Food was a very important part of her life, she was forever hungry, but as a child the food served was pretty basic. She recalls the 70’s, when the appearance of a nice sterile tin of Fray Bentos Chicken Pie felt like progress! That was something that would change dramatically, as she moved away from her working class community, ( but never her roots) to become a journalist, author, and national newspaper restaurant critic, with appearances on TV’s Masterchef.

This is a beautifully written, nostalgic account, of a Cumbrian working class girl, ascending to the dizzying heights of the media scene in London. It’s humorous, it’s enlightening, and it’s also very moving - the family’s experience of living with, and trying to cope with, her Dad’s dementia, was soul baring, and as such, brought me to tears. Food is a real memory trigger, both good and bad, and we each have our own, but I will never again see a bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut without thinking of Grace’s dad. A wonderful memoir!

I absolutely loved this book. It has all the essential ingredients, it’s funny, emotional and sad in places. It makes you feel nostalgic too as childhood memories are highlighted using food and television references. I haven’t enjoyed a food-based memoir as much since Nigel Slater’s “Toast” and like that book it is the people honestly portrayed who really are memorable. Highly recommended.

Brilliant. Pin sharp, self aware, funny, Grace Dent can write. Loved the descriptions of life in the seventies and eighties before mobiles and posh food. I remember those school puddings. This memoir made me laugh out loud at times, ask why? at others and shed a little tear too. Superb social history and a great read. Loved it.

Hungry is not a book; it's a time machine. It transports you to a time when life was simpler and food was infinitely more beige than it is today. I'm a few years older than Grace Dent but I could completely relate to a teen life of writing letters to the NME and eating tasteless comfort food. If I ever wrote an autobiography - which I won't because the worlds full of books that don't need reading or writing - it would have a lot of food in it, and much of that would be tied up with love and family relationships. My memories are always intrinsically linked to food.

I also found her account of looking after her elderly parents - one with cancer, the other with dementia - VERY moving. Her down-to-earth humour and get-on-with-it-ness (or gerronwit perhaps), is absolutely priceless.

I don't know Grace Dent. I don't watch Masterchef, I don't read London restaurant reviews, and I've never read any of her books before this one. But I already suspect I know her inside out and that we'd get on like a house on fire. I can't stand Jay Rayner or AA Gill or Michael Winner but I'd definitely want to have dinner and a natter with Grace.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.

Hungry charts Grace Dent’s life from her humble beginnings in 21 Harold Street Currock to the heady heights of well known food critic. This immensely readable and entertaining memoir reflects on everything in between, her strong Cumbrian dialect punctuating her memories and anecdotes that are often frank and hilarious. The author’s northern roots are never forgotten even when in later years London beckons so that you gain an impression of a woman who is down to earth despite her successes. Her love of food from pickled eggs through to the more refined, sophisticated cuisine as seen in the most exclusive restaurants is translated onto these pages, making this a memoir you won’t want to put down (except for maybe needing to rustle up a snack or two!!).

Being of a very similar age to Dent,one of my favourite aspects of this memoir is the trip down memory lane the writing affords, taking the reader back to the 70’s when standard family cuisine was nowhere near as varied as it is today. References to TV shows like the Multicoloured Swap Shop featuring cook Delia Smith, The Krypton Factor and the Kenny Everett show are just a few nostalgic reminders of a time when dessert was Angel Delight and you were really classy if you had a Soda Stream at home! Dent’s recollections of her time in the Brownies coupled with time spent outdoors playing with all the kids down her street, without a parent in sight almost makes you feel as if you’re a time traveller, wistful for pre internet days when the whereabouts of children were often overlooked and families actually ate together. Of course if you are a child of the seventies this will resonate with you far more. It even got me thinking about my own time in the Brownies and my distinct lack of earned badges plus my own mother’s culinary offerings (curzon liver?!?!!) and the weekly supermarket shop(which I hated!) that Dent brings vividly to life.

Charting her long and arduous progress up the career ladder until finally landing some plum roles as a food critic I detected a certain amount of swagger and bravado employed by this woman determined to reach her goals in life. Perhaps her Aunt Frieda with her own delusions of grandeur had a part to play in this! I may have been pretty clueless about Dent’s many accomplishments up until now but the way in which she describes her rise to fame is often funny, irreverent and inspiring.

Naturally the significance of food throughout Dent’s life so far is woven through every anecdote from her childhood years making sketty with her dad, to the introduction of the big supermarkets where you could buy a trolley full of cheap calorie laden treats to satisfy the sweetest tooth through to her London restaurant days when she has an awakening regarding food, changing her view of eating forever. That there is so much on offer from all corners of the globe is enlightening and responsible for taking her one step closer to realising her ambition of eminent food critic. Dent is upfront about her lifelong battle with her weight but I loved how recollections of daily life throughout childhood, university and adulthood is often linked to whatever culinary delight was available, affordable or in vogue at the time. I couldn’t help wondering if the author ever yearns for a Findus crispy pancake or two!

Dazzling me through all the childhood memories and Dent’s path to such a successful and varied career is her relationship with her parents, in particular her father. The unconditional love that unites this family carrying them through thick and thin puts absolutely everything else into perspective. I absolutely loved the anecdotes about this pair, especially her mum’s fondness for home improvements, a woman who throughout Dent’s childhood always managed a multitude of tasks whilst still providing almost 24 hour sustenance. Being a daddy’s girl myself I recognised the bond that exists between Dent and her own father, so all the many stories she has to impart regarding this man are injected with such love and pride. This love is a constant, transcending her formative years, teenage angst and the gradual loosening of the ties to Currock until London is truly a place to call home, coming full circle with the declining health of both her mother and father. The latter pages that detail these years will resonate with any reader who has or is currently experiencing a similar situation. The writing is sincere, heartfelt and touching, moving me beyond words. I simply couldn’t read this section without the floodgates opening!

This lovely memoir holds mass appeal irrespective of whether you are familiar with the media figure/food critic or not. I found it an utter joy to read,flying through the pages within one day. It is funny and honest with an incredibly moving ending and I cannot recommend more highly. My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

Really good. Very funny and very real. Grace appears to be totally honest in her account of her life. It felt like a really nostalgic read. I am not much older than Grace and it was lovely to read about the 1980s. Her honesty about her parents and her life is emotional, funny and a pleasure to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed reading about Grace Dent’s life and the love that pours out for her dad.
The references to food through the book brings some lovely memories back for me!
It is bitter sweet and brought a tear to my eye.
I love Masterchef and anything to do with cooking abs this book didn’t disappoint. Since reading it I am definitely going to look up more of Grace’s writing as I lived the style she writes in.
Lovely book.

Many thanks to the author, publishers and Netgalley for a free ARC of this ebook.
I was so pleased to receive this ebook. I'm quite a fan of Grace Dent, always read her restaurant reviews and other scribings. This book is everything I hoped it would be, and more. Grace describes her early years in Cumbria with such passion and clarity. I could resonate with so many of her memories, the 1970's popular cultural references, food especially especially. As she moves on through her life, her work experiences and pulling away from her family are so sincerely written. By turns when reading this book I was laughing, then in tears of sadness. Her descriptions of her parents illnesses and her struggles to cope are heartbreaking. Grace Dent is a wonderful raconteur, she stays real, and has produced a wondeful book in which she shares very intimate aspects of her life. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to read it.

Overall, a good read, at times moving and often funny. It is at its strongest when Dent tells the story of her father's vascular dementia and the severing of the guy ropes that tether him to his family.

I have heard of Grace Dent but never really knew much about her life, this is an interesting memoir into her life growing up. I felt nostalgic reading about the kinds of foods Grace grew up on. I found it very relatable and some parts very amusing, I have an uppermost respect for Grace now, you never know what is going on in someone's life or what they are going through at a time they are in the limelight. It was also inspiring to see how she managed to get herself on the career ladder too. I, like Grace remember a childhood of Beige, that really did make me laugh.