Maynard Davies happened upon a career in curing bacon. He turned that coincidence into a life of passion in food that has few equals. In these quintessentially British books—quirky, personal, extremely well written—he describes scenes from that life and key parts of bacon making that are illuminating and unforgettable.

These books strike me as the food version of Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman, the book in which Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman describes his life in physics. In both books a bona fide expert makes plain and clear what fans want to know. And fans of bacon, you will want to know about this. Bacon curing of this caliber is a dying art anywhere. It's so sufficiently different from what we do in America that Maynard's recipes make a keen study for professionals too.