Grace Dent has a really readable style, I whizzed through this book about her life and her family in just a few hours. A nostalgic look at an eighties childhood reminded me of my own, the food, the rough school, the music and the family life.
The subplot of Graces dad's other family left behind and not mentioned ever is unresolved. I loved the relationships between Grace and her father when she was a child and now with him suffering with dementia. It's very touching but unsentimental.
A great read.

I like Grace Dent. I enjoy her humour and her appearances on Masterchef as a critic are a breath of fresh air in comparison with some of the others. So I thought it would be interesting to read her biography and find out more about her. It turned out not to be my sort of thing. It seems overly long to me with far too much time spent on her childhood. Her career pathway turns out to be a series of random opportunities rather than promotion due to knowledge or ability. She says herself that most of her life ‘has been a fluke’. She was appointed restaurant critic in The Standard randomly and is now writing in The Guardian. Clearly she has learned a lot about food along the way - she won Reviewer of the Year in 2017 - but it’s understandable why many eyebrows were raised initially.

Dent has written many books for teenagers and that is apparent in the style of this biography. For me, too much of it is dialogue, detailed memories from childhood and boasting about her fairly chaotic, until relatively recently, lifestyle. The best part of the book is towards the end when she movingly describes how she has cared for her ageing parents and many readers will be able to identify with that.

Nostalgia abounds especially if you’re a working class child of the 70s and 80s. Full of so many memory-stirring emotions and references. The food, the music, the fashion, the whole shebang.
I had frequent “wow I remember having/doing/eating/wearing that” thoughts throughout the book. Charting the author’s life from working class childhood, through teens, university and eventually the Big Move to the Big Smoke and her subsequent rise to fame.
It’s not all tunnocks teacakes and butterscotch angel delight though, Ms Dent has also laid bare some tough areas of her life. A heartwarming and heartfelt read.

I'm afraid I couldn't finish this book. I couldn't get on with her style of narrative nor the jumping around from one story snippet to another. It didn't charm me enough to persevere.

I loved it! There's only 2 months in age between me and Grace and I related to so much of what she talked about. Like her, I love the addiction of supermarket shopping (Grace's Mum and I would have been a nightmare to live together). We are both northern and she sums up exactly how I feel about my childhood in the North.

I'm fascinated by how she came to be a food writer but this book is much more than that. She's self deprecating and so funny but there are such sad moments too.

This is a fine piece of writing. I've read Grace's reviews over the years and always found her an entertaining read. I didn't really know very much else about her. This memoir describes her life in terms of how food, class and family shaped who she is. It's also a meditation on grief and the gradual erosion of someone's life being taken away from them by Alzheimer's disease. It's funny and poignant by turns. I always find it fascinating to read memoirs by people who are my age, as it opens up little windows of memories of my own and creates a shared, if fictitious connection with the author. I had that in spades here. Despite the fact that it covers a lot of ground, thematically speaking, it's really coherent as a narrative and I raced through it.

I hadn't heard of Grace Dent before reading this so I was surprised to discover she is very well-known, and I plan to look for her restaurant reviews from now on. I found this memoir touching and interesting with lots of humour and heart. Anyone who grew up in the 70s and 80s in England will definitely find plenty to identify with.

I have to admit, even before reading this book I was a huge fan of Grace Dent. Her direct, honest, cheeky, twinkle-eyed voice can be heard through every word of this book and for me it makes it the most joyous, heartbreaking yet wonderfully uplifting book I've read in a long, long time.
This is not just an ode to food, but a love letter to Grace's parents and upbringing - one which, for all the good and the bad, you wish you had been there for.
From her early days in the North, moving to London and then moving back North to look after her parents, you feel every emotion that Grace goes through from the ecstatic to the despairing - to seeing the humour through it all.
I devoured this book and will happily read it again and again - and I'll never look at a bar on Cadbury's Fruit and Nut without thinking of it.

I know who Grace Dent is. I occasionally read her restaurant reviews in The Guardian and in other publications over the years and she generally makes me laugh. I know her as a talking head on nostalgia programmes reminiscing about a biscuit or forgotten gem of Children’s TV. I don’t know much more than that about her but my interest was certainly piqued by the arrival of this work. Subtitled “A memoir of wanting more”, when I finished it I was the one who was certainly wanting more.
Grace won me over from the Epigraph which conveys the wisdom of Coronation Street’s Ena Sharples circa 1965; “When I was a little lass, the world was half a dozen streets, an’ a bit of waste land, an’ the rest was all talk.” Grace’s all talk is an upbringing in Carlisle and the importance food played in her working class Cumbrian home runs throughout as she develops a palate from the tinned Fray Bentos pie to unimaginably posh food at top London restaurants. As Grace moves into a world of journalism, London magazines, working with Piers Morgan (life’s not always a bowl of cherries, I suppose) she remains the girl who swung around lampposts waiting to be called in for her tea.
Her relationship with family is beautifully conveyed, especially her parents and particularly her Dad as he begins to slip away from them with dementia which as the book moves towards the present day has a potent pull on Grace’s priorities.
It is full of superb observations on life and the recalling of the 80’s and 90’s is palpable. I relished her reflections, such as the most significant person in eighties Cumbria being the woman who worked in the big Asda in Carlisle with the price reduction gun. I like a memoir where the writer carries you along establishing points of common contact and yet telling their own story and I think Grace Dent does this brilliantly here.
I haven’t enjoyed a food-based memoir as much since Nigel Slater’s “Toast” (2003) and like that book it is the people fuelled by the food who really are memorable.
Hungry was published by Mudlark on 29th October 2020. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the review copy.

Those of you who have come across Grace, will be reading this with her voice in your head. This is such an enjoyable read.

Food is a thread throughout the book. For those readers of a similar age to Grace, we are taken back to when the first giant supermarkets opened and how food was bought because it was cheap rather than good for you. We then see that constant worry for Grace was keeping her weight low often eating next to nothing in her teens and twenties. So the transformation into a food critic is perhaps rather surprising.

The love for her parents shines through. and it is particularly poignant to read about her Dad's mental deterioration.

Definitely one for your wish list.

I like Grace Dent; I don’t watch many foodie programmes but I’ll happily watch anything she appears in as I enjoy her observations and input.

I really enjoyed this honest and down to earth story of her life and background. She writes with honesty and humour and I found it a totally fascinating insight into her life and times. She tells it as it is and her written style is intelligent and filled with detail which help the reader understand the joys and sadness in her life. I particularly enjoyed the tale of ‘sketty’ and her dad’s Liverpudlian heritage. It can’t have been easy to depict his later difficulties and I was close to tears to learn of how he was diminished by illness. But through the book, there’s an energy which, I sense, is Grace Dent.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

I absolutely devoured this book. Dent's style of writing is dry, witty and she has gone to the top of my list of dream dinner party guests. She has such an evocative way of describing her childhood, as a northern girl myself I loved the stories and language used- she had me snorting with laughter and then crying constantly- a brilliant brilliant book.

I do think this book is slightly mis-sold. Not that it ruins the reading experience - it doesn't at all - but I went in largely expecting a food memoir. What you get is a memoir with a bit of food chucked in, with more specialism as you get into the last quarter of it.

Grace Dent, a food writer and general food enthusiast, walks us through her life so far - from her childhood in Carlisle to her university years in Scotland and eventual move down to London to become part of the glitterati. Her writing is tinged with a sardonic but genuinely warm humour and despite our upbringings being very, very different, I found myself gaining a real connection with her. Dent writes as though you're having a conversation with her and it makes the world - her world - real even more immersive and authentic. Her stories of being a Brownie, weird experiences of being a teenager and discussions of the world of beige that was school dinners were particular highlights for me.

I also shed a few tears when she talked about her father's dementia. My grandmother was diagnosed with dementia a few years ago and Dent's writing perfectly captures what it feels like to see a loved one go through it. How the real person has gone and you're left with the shell. The final chapter where she talks about Christmas in 2018, with them all together, is a particularly joyous moment and you will close this book with your heart full and hopeful.

A mixture of all sorts. From a seemingly wild childhood to a respected restaurant critic. I shed a few tears as Grace tried to keep her family together when both parents were ill. Worth a read!

The is an interesting sort of memoir as it relies heavily on the food that has affected the author's life. Growing up in England, studying in Scotland and going on to be a restaurant critic- it makes for a good and unique read. The book focuses heavily on her relationship with her family and although I really enjoyed it I found parts of this quite heartbreaking. A book I would thoroughly recommend.

I'm not sure where to start about how utterly brilliant this book is! Seriously its probably the best book I've read this year!
I've never known someone to be as refreshingly honest and open as Grace Dent has been in this book.. Its almost as if she's gone "this is me, love me or hate me, this is me" and its absolutely brilliant.
I first watched Grace Dent on Masterchef, she was with Jay Rayner and William Sitwell, they were being quite brutal about the food and she made a comment about "you 2 are the reason people hate us restaurant critics" and it had me laughing my head off. Ever since then I've loved watching her on TV and knew I had to read this book and it didnt disappoint!
My favourite line in this book is: 'however, you only have to write once at a silly frequency that makes a stranger really snort with laughter and then you're in their hearts, just a little bit, forever'
This was what it was like for me with that Masterchef episode however with this book, she's in my heart just a little bit more.
I wont ruin it for other readers by putting spoilers in but you can relate to some bits in this book and you can really feel for her with other bits. The ending particularly. This is a must read!!!

As I don’t watch Masterchef I had little knowledge of the author
However I found her life particularly her childhood in Carlisle interesting
Well worth a read

At times an amusing account on life in the Dent family. Brought up in a working class family Dent only had access to the simple and cheap pleasures in life. Her father George, an ex soldier teaches her to cook. Her passion and association with food grows and she is now best known as a restaurant critic. She is entertaining and even when sadness appears as her father's dementia takes hold food is a comfort to the family before the inevitable happens. A thoroughly good read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this delicious memoir. It turns out I have a slight fascination with food memoirs and this one was quite lovely. The last page had me with tears welling and the largest lump in my throat. I had to wait a moment or two before I could finish my breakfast.

This is a wonderful look at growing up in the eighties, a working class England. I love how Grace's memories of food are intertwined with her memories of her family, and no matter how many up and coming restaurant's food she samples, its the simple pleasures of a home grown meal that is close to her heart. The noise and constancy of her family. This is a delicious look at all these things, but also, dementia. I did have a moment where I wondered if the story was going anywhere but then it does in a rather hard hitting, and mostly sad, way.

I highly recommend this, particularly if you like a rags to riches story, a tenacious character and you don't mind a couple of plops of tears, but only at the end...

A well written and easy read.
Thank you @netgalley for the review copy.

An incredible memoir from one of my favourite writers and broadcasters, Grace Dent has written a stunning book.

Hungry is a book about food and family. It’s about being working class and making it in the glitz and glamour of the London media. It is the story of food from Findus Crispy Pancakes to the poncey end of Michelin cuisine.

While much of the book is sharply observed and quick witted, it is also agonisingly sad. A story of family which in recent years has been heavily overshadowed as her parents have battled health concerns, including her dad’s dementia.

Grace Dent is engaging and genuine throughout. Whether you have a triple barrelled name and are likely to intern at a trendy magazine or if you grew up with mince as the household staple, Hungry will appeal to all who pick it up.

Thanks to Harper Collins and Netgalley for an advanced copy.