Product Description
The love of tea and teatime has been a defining characteristic of the English for centuries. ENGLISH TEATIME: Historical Survey provides a summary of how tea came to England, the places in which it was consumed, its growing popularity, and how the custom of afternoon tea developed and continues to be enjoyed today. Among the specific historical topics covered are the British East India Company and the tea monopoly, taverns, pleasure and tea gardens, coffee houses, clubs, unsavory aspects of the tea trade, the appeal of tea for all social classes, critics and supporters of tea consumption, the design and manufacture of tea utensils, the role of the aristocracy in the evolution of afternoon tea, different styles in the presentation of afternoon tea throughout different eras, and the kind of food served. Also included are discussions of afternoon tea menus today, the difference between "high tea" and "afternoon tea," and the very special atmosphere surrounding the afternoon-tea custom. The text - by award-winning author Linda Hewitt - is approximately 12,300 words long. Nine detailed pen-and-ink illustrations drawn specifically for the overview by award-winning artist Robert Hewitt demonstrate various aspects of the custom of afternoon tea.
About the Author
Linda Hewitt, a native of Alabama, attended
Birmingham-Southern College, the University of Alabama, and Georgia State
University. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in History. She began writing when she
was three - her first work was a notebook of observations about her
grandparents' home. She edited various school papers, and wrote her graduate
thesis on the political and economic implications of German Reparations stipulated
in treaties following the First World War. With her husband Robert, she was
partner in Hewitt & Hewitt, Inc., an Atlanta public relations boutique
serving major corporations. Her books deal with a wide range of topics, mostly
cultural and economic. Several were book club selections and are used as
supplemental reading in undergraduate cultural history courses. She is
currently working on a look a earlier times in Alabama coal mining, with a
focus on life in company towns. She consults on communications strategy.
