The previous time we went to England, my dad (and bro and I) fell in love with the cheeses in their sandwiches, so much so that when we came back, he asked me to help him find the cheddar cheese that he ate. With all that cheese on the mind, it’s no wonder that I borrowed this when I saw it.

Cheddar Gorge is a book from the 1930s, written when the state of English cheeses were in decline. Various authors are tasked to sing the praises of a specific cheese, and EH Shepard, the man who illustrated Winnie the Pooh, does the illustrations. The cheese covered in the book are:

• Stilton
• Cheddar
• Chesire
• Double Gloucester
• Leicester
• Wensleydale
• Caerphilly
• Dunlop
• Irish Cheeses
• Blue Vinny

Each chapter will vary according to the author. Most of them will try to describe the cheese in some way (although one author admitted that it’s not very possible to put to words what is essentially a wordless experience) and some even include a recipe. The chapter for Caerphilly is pretty interesting because it’s essentially the author’s tale of his attempt to find some Caerphilly cheese in its origin country – it really reads like a travel story at times.

Mid-way through this book, I felt like eating some cheese and promptly had a break. Luckily, we happened to have some red leicester cheese at home. Overall, I really enjoyed this lovely collection of essays. I have no idea what happened to English cheeses, but I hope the situation has improved because now, I really want to eat lots of cheese when we visit England.