Bee Wilsons study of kitchen objects passed down through generations, The Heart-Shaped Tin, offers an intimate new way of telling a life This is a wonderful and original book, which has made me look at stuff in a different way. I didnt think I would love it as much as I did Telegraph 5-star review
Wilson has managed to strike the perfect (and rare) balance between historical and sociological survey investigating other peoples fondness for their utensils and memoir, weaving in rich personal anecdotes that show why her own kitchen is full of ghosts thoroughly enjoyable book The Times
Warmly thoughtful, engaging and often erudite riffs on the strange potency of everyday things Like those great food writers Margaret Visser and M F K Fisher, Wilson knows that everyday objects are the living echo of the great human rituals of labour, consolation, civilisation and, sometimes, subversion Literary Review
Bee Wilson is one of my favourite writers and this may be her best book. It is about love, and loss, life and death It covers superstition, magic and more than anything it is a manual for recovery. Toast racks, pressure cookers, baby food scissors these are some of the tools that Wilson uses to reckon with, and answer, the most profound questions about the human condition. Full of joy and hope, this book will be an antidote to sadness in any reader Chris van Tulleken
'Bee Wilsons beautiful, melancholy book gave me permission to get out and enjoy the breadboard I took from my beloved late aunts kitchen. Her generous understanding of why stuff matters to us is a humane rebuke to the declutterers, and she shows just how a melon baller, a toast-rack and a charity-shop platter can indeed bring joy' Emma Smith
In this delightful book, part memoir, part anthropological investigation, food writer Wilson explores the way that kitchen objects have the power to move, soothe and even reproach us Kathryn Hughes, Guardian
