Nigel Slater: On Toast

The chances of me reading Nigel Slater's Toast did not look good.
It was about food for one thing, which is a subject I have little interest in beyond the need to stay alive.
For another thing, I'm slightly wary of memoirs told through the medium of being a fan of Arsenal or Iron Maiden or whatever.
There is also a cliche of writing about growing up where dropping long-forgotten brand names is supposed to hold a Proustian charge; Get off your Space Hopper and drink your Nesquik.
Nigel Slater's book about growing up with food comes heaped with praise, but most of the press quotes that are meant to tempt you inside are eating puns so bad they could turn your stomach.
"Toast follows a recipe - boyhood boys without bitterness..." "A banquet of unlikely delectations..." "I gobbled it up."
I finally bought a copy the other day for 30p.
It's a beautiful book, a sort-of not coming out story.
I only stopped reading at silly o'clock in the morning so I couldn't say; "I devoured it in one sitting."
Toast is about Nigels father, as much as it is about food; how he coped after Nigel's mother died - which is badly - and how he could never quite hide his disappointment that his young son was quite so girly.
The book is divided up into sections headed; Toast, Christmas Cake, Bread-and Butter Pudding, Sherry Trifle...
My favourite is the one about Josh, the handsome young gardener who comes and helps out at the Slater's once a week.
Young Nigel's fascinated by him.
That chapter's called The Lunch Box.