Ellis, Hattie

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Ellis, Hattie

PERSONAL: Female.

ADDRESSES: Home—East Sussex, England. Agent—Georgina Capel, Capel & Land Ltd., 29 Wardour St., London W1D 6PS, England.

CAREER: Food writer and columnist.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Mood Food: Strategies for Contemporary Cooking and Entertaining, Headline Book Publisher (London, England), 1998.

Trading Places: Europe's Finest Specialist Shops, photographs by Jill Mead, Mitchell Beazley (London, England), 2000.

Eating England: Why We Eat What We Eat, photographs by Jill Mead, Mitchell Beazley (London, England), 2001.

Coffee: Discovering, Exploring, Enjoying, photographs by Debi Treloar, Ryland Peters & Small (New York, NY), 2002.

Tea: Discovering, Exploring, Enjoying, photographs by Debi Treloar, Ryland Peters & Small (New York, NY), 2002.

Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Bumblebee, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: British food writer Hattie Ellis has delved into topics from teas to bees in her published book-length works. With the 2001 Eating England: Why We Eat What We Eat, Ellis plumbs the history of such favorite British foods as Marmite and pork pies, looking at the social and cultural conditions that gave rise to such a food tradition. A reviewer for Cumbria Directory found this offering "a fascinating and informative read for everyone interested in the joy of eating good food."

Ellis reached an American audience with her 2004 title, Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Bumblebee, a "worthy, synthesized portrait" of Apis mellifera and its relatives, according to a critic for Kirkus Reviews. Researching her book, Ellis left her native England to track the progress of the honey-making insect from Nepal to New Zealand to North America and Europe, interviewing beekeepers and honey lovers along the way. Her resulting work is a travel book, nature book, and social/biological history all in one. Indeed, Nancy Bent, writing in Booklist, referred to the hybrid nature of Ellis's book by noting that Sweetness and Light is "a marvelous combination of natural history and social science."

Ellis follows the evolution of the honeybee—whose origins are thought to precede that of flowers—from the carnivore wasp to the semidomesticated insect beloved by beekeepers around the world. The author also examines the process by which bees turn pollen into honey and looks at the many varieties and tastes of that golden product. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly thought that Ellis presents a "charming history," as well as "a sweetly satisfying read." Reviewing the book for the London Spectator, James Fleming commended Ellis's "good eye for the striking detail" and her "bustling" and "joyful style." Similarly, a Bookwatch reviewer praised the "lively anecdotes" employed by the author. A Kirkus Reviews contributor concluded by finding Ellis's work "a class act, her style among the fanciful and insightful best."