Al and Kitty Tait are a father and daughter duo who run the Orange Bakery together and Breadsong is a, wonderful emotional book that tells their story with a focus on Kitty's anxiety and how the process of making bread - and other delicious baked goods, helped the then 14-year-old Kitty reconnect with those around her and discover her passion.

Bread.

Breadsong takes the reader along with Kitty from her initial curiosity over watching Al making a loaf at home to the two working together making delicious baked goods for friends and family to the opening of their bakery and it's an emotional journey for anyone who knows how lost you can feel when the internal voices outweigh those around you.

I truly believe that a methodical way of creating something in be so beneficial to quieten anxiety and often the depression that coexists with it. Kitty's journey will both inspire and cause tears to fall. She is someone to admire as are her parents for their perseverance and strength...

Kitty and Al's perspectives of the journey both of the mental one to recovery and the ups and downs are honest and often highlight the realities they face. Nothing is sugar-coated and it's an excellent story.

They're also kind enough to provide the reader with many recipes to try and I need to casually slide this towards my home baker; my husband, to see if there's any he wants to make.

Kitty and Al deserve all the success in the world and are an inspiration to anyone who is struggling to find that one thing that can help them feel less isolated.

Breadsong is such a lovely book and Kitty is such an inspiration! There were plenty of amazing recipes. I have tried some of these and loved them. I loved the community spirit and would highly recommend this book.

This is a heartwarming idea: At 14, Kitty, always the happy kid, began to struggle with depression and anxiety. While trying various activities to try to help her focus, her father, Al, bakes a loaf of bread. Kitty is intrigued and a new obsession is born.

I was really captivated by the story and have tried out baking my own bread since - and been converted.

A gorgeous and uplifting book that came to me at the perfect time. It’s been a while since I read it now, but I’m very grateful to have been offered the opportunity to read it.

I was drawn to this book as someone who has used baking and cooking as a way through a dark patch in the past and I wasn’t disappointed. I haven’t tried any of the recipes, but I look forward to a time when my health allows me to. The narrative presented here is inspirational and as I said, just what I needed as I read it.

Thank you for allowing me to read this book and offer feedback.

A lovely, positive book about making the best out of a bad situation and moving forward regardless. I am in the process of buying the actual book as I want to be able to mull it over and reread bits. A good book to read - highly recommended.

Very interesting reading about their story, certainly inspiring. The bread recipes were great, and we have enjoyed all that we made. A lovely, heartwarming book.

A simply fabulous book.
Tasty recipes and a look into Kitty and her Dads lives, and how they link together.
Highly recommend

This beautiful book tells the soul-warming and completely captivating story of Whatlington’s Orange Bakery, simultaneously narrated by baker Kitty and her father and fellow baker Al, each point of view told in different fonts to mark their takes on the tale. After 14-year-old Kitty fell prey to a particularly vicious bout of anxiety and depression, her parents and older siblings clustered round to help: Al left his job as a teacher to be with Kitty and help her recover, though nothing they tried seemed to bring her out of the dark – until one day when Al made a loaf of bread, cut a slice, buttered it and handed it to his daughter, igniting a love of baking that would change both of their lives. The story continues, covering her experiments, sharing loaves with neighbours and starting to take orders – all told in perfectly plain yet beautifully evocative language, such as how Kitty moved like a ‘quiet elf’ between houses while wearing her soft pyjamas, checking on bread cooking in neighbours’ kindly-donated ovens to keep on top of the ever-increasing number of customers. Kitty and Al then discover the delights of proper sourdough and recruit ‘Ferguson’ the starter (delightfully, all their equipment gets a first name) – they connect with other bakers through Instagram, bravely venture to meet them in person, host a first pop-up with a superbly-crafted guerrilla marketing campaign which helps to sell out the bread in 23 minutes – before Kickstarting an actual shop, adorned with a hand-painted orange tree, laden with fruit bearing their first investors’ names. The first half of the book tells their story: the second holds their recipes, and I had to immediately stop writing this review to start baking a loaf of the ‘Comfort’, a white loaf with Marmite in the crust – if you need me, I’ll be sat by the oven. Buy this for keen bakers or anyone who got inspired by bread over lockdown: guaranteed inspiration on every page.

This is one of those life-changing books. One that really touches your soul and that you bring with you for years in your heart.
It is the story of love between a daughter and her father, and how bread always saves the world.
It discusses important topics, like mental health and depression. It shows how a passion like baking can cure the soul and heal the heart. In the end, a bakery saves both daughter and father.
Highly recommended!
And, of course, I'd love to visit their bakery!

Easily 5🌟stars for this wonderful uplifting book. I enjoyed every bit of it. We follow the journey of Kitty and Al Tait on their bread making adventure. Lots of lovely recipes included as well as the beautifully cheerful photos. Thank you to the authors, publishers and Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A delightfully uplifting read. Who would have thought that something as prosaic as bread could rescue a troubled child from mental health problems? But so it proved [pun intended.]. The unsentimental, and often humorous, story behind the birth and growth of their bakery, written alternately by Kitty and her father, is an engrossing read. And the descriptions of the delicious sounding baked goods also made me very hungry - I must now try the recipes!

What a fabulous book - the story of the internal struggle of a youngster who could not find her place in the world and that alchemic moment when she started to make bread with her father. These moments in life are so rare and need to be grasped and held on to. Kitty was able to move out of her own way and let the bread fill the empty space inside and bring her closer to every member of her family but especially her loving and patient father.
Such joy to read the triumphs and even the lows which all helped to push her on to producing the best bread, through so much hard work. This is a book of battling against the demons, family teamwork and most of all bread, bread and more bread!
The recipes are mouthwatering and so inspiring. Will be trying some, but in the meantime, I would recommend this book for bakers, and anyone interested in following dreams..

What a fabulous book! It’s warm hearted, honest and incredibly positive. You feel there is nothing the family won’t overcome, because there’s no such thing as giving up. There’s a problem, then there’s research, teamwork and problem solving. Breadsong is a very uplifting read. Yes, I found myself welling up at times, but then I was laughing out loud and I’m pretty sure there were a few shouted “Hurrays!” And, of course, there is bread. A lot of bread.

I’ve been making bread every week since 2014 when I read The Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan, a warm and cosy novel which really inspired me to make my own. After all, I’d grown up eating homemade bread, I knew how much better it was than shop bought. I just needed a nudge to follow Mum’s example. She would come home on a Friday night after working hard in an office all week and make a batch of loaves. I’d wait the minimum amount of time to cut a slice or two. I always spread the crust with butter and honey. For the last 4 years I’ve been baking sourdough, also inspired by some of the bakers Kitty mentions. So, I completely utterly understand the appeal of dough and baking. It is therapeutic and apart from ending with something hugely tasty to eat, you feel a huge sense of achievement.

I can’t wait to try some of the recipes, in Breadsong. I didn’t realise that there would be so many! HURRAY!

Also I should go and visit the bakery sometime soon, as I’m not far from Watlington. Who can resist a visit after seeing all the beautiful photographs in the book?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC of this wonderful book.

What a beautiful book! Humanity at its very best.
It's a story of recovery from a mental health crisis, but also the wonderful way in which a family and community can support its members.
At the age of fourteen, Kitty Tait's mental health takes a severe turn for the worse and this book, written alternately by Kitty and her father, Al Tait, charts the journey to finding ways to recover and stay in a better place. After trying several things, baking bread is the catalyst that pulls Kitty back from the dark.
This isn't only about Kitty however, as the whole community of Watlington, the town where the Tait family live, becomes involved in the bread, at first by consuming it, but then also supporting the various stages of expansion to a fully grown business. It's also about the wider baking community and the generosity of spirit shown in passing on their hard earned wisdom and skills.

So that is the first half of the book. The second half contains many of the recipes mentioned in the first half. I haven't been able to try them yet, but they are written in the same style as the beginning, which is an open, honest and relaxed style. The photographs which illustrate throughout, have a distinctive, homely and inviting character.
I can't wait to get this on our library shelf.

I've loved every single second of reading this book, and I'm already planning my first visit to Watlington to visit the Orange Bakery and the Taits.

The book is split into two halves, the first is where both Kitty and Al narrate their journey from the beginning of Kitty's mental health battles to their opening up their own bakery and being successful business owners. The second half of the book is full of their tasty, delicious looking breads and pastries, which I'm looking forward to trying my hand at baking.

The book also has lots of photographs of their bakes alongside the bakery, and also some great illustrations drawn by Al.

Many thanks to the Tandem Collective for my copy and readalong spot.

Rating 🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞

This was a lovely book! A memoir and recipe book mix, it was very interesting to get to know the "story" behind the recipes and it absolutely made my heart warm. Can't wait to test some of the recipes.
Thanks for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I devoured every page of this fantastic book! The first half of the book is a dual narrative between Kitty and her Dad Al. Kitty aged 14 is overcome with depression and anxiety. The once happy go lucky girl seems to have disappeared overnight. One day while watching her Dad make bread something clicks and an obsession is born. Bread becomes her reason for getting out of bed and a whole world opens up for her. Kitty starts making bread for her neighbours and soon the whole community gets behind her and the Orange Bakery comes to life.
Real, raw and inspiring this book has so much heart and charm with a good measure of humour thrown in.
The second half of the book is filled with delicious recipes that have been mentioned in the first half so it’s lovely having a backstory to the recipes too. So far I have made Brown Butter Cookies and the Comfort Loaf

Part memoir, part cookbook, Breadsong tells the story of Orange Bakery founders Kitty and Al Tait. At 14, Kitty sunk into a cloud of depression so deep that she struggled to get out of bed. One day, her dad, Al, persuaded her to bake a loaf of bread with him. Soon, they were baking daily, making loaves for friends and family, and experimenting with new recipes. Breadsong features the most successful of those recipes, from Sticky Fika Buns and Salted Caramel Happy Bread, to Overnight Foccacia and Ultimate Chelsea Buns. A must for baking fans.

Brilliant book.
It was refreshing to read about how the recipes were developed.
There were some interesting parts about coping with mental health as well.
I love the recipes and I can’t wait to make some sourdough!

I absolutely adored everything about this book and have since made contact and chatted to Kitty Tait to tell her so . This glorious book felt like coming home and it stole my heart on so many levels.
I too am an artisan baker but cakes rather than breads, but I still found the book and the father daughter duos experiences of starting from home and all the chaos and juggling that comes with their , so relatable. I loved the way Kitty’s dad knew her inside and out, and the love and humour than shone through on every single page., and the journey they unknowingly Mel armed on both personally and professionally This is a book about family, about the fragility’s of mental health and of finding a passion that burns so bright that it sets your heart on fire.
I will continue to follow Kitty and Al Tate on their epic bready adventures and hope to visit their little bakery one day that came about through the help of a small community and is now the hub of it.
Thankyou so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the pre publication copy, I loved it so much I treated myself to a physical copy which part memoir and part recipe book is now taking pride of place above my I’ve dough mixer nestled with other foodie themed books that have taken a place in my heart.