29 July 2009, 17:36 PM
  • Paul Kingsworth's book, The Battle Against the Bland, was recently reviewed by The Guardian's, Nicholas Lezard, as a book 'everyone should read.'

According to Lezard, it focuses on ‘the marginalisation, followed by the extinction, of all the little bits of organically grown culture that make England in any way distinctive’.

The recommendation is a particularly relevant one to the speciality food industry because it directs readers to chapters which draw attention to ‘the Tescoisation of the land.’

The book features a long, fast-paced string of statistics that flag-up with frightening force, issues independents are painfully aware of, to a public less knowledgeable of them. 

“The UK has lost nearly 30,000 independent food, beverage and tobacco retailers over the past decade ... 50 specialist shops closed every week between 1997 and 2002 ... Meanwhile, the number of out-of-town shopping areas increased four-fold between 1986 and 1997 ... Since the end of the second world war we have lost - no, not lost, destroyed - 95% of our wildflower meadows, 50% of our chalk grasslands, half of our ancient lowland woodlands, half of our wetlands, 94% of our lowland raised bog and 186,000 miles of ancient hedgerow.”

The hard-hitting facts stop public complacency in its tracks: good news for the independents that battle to fight the bland and the budget on a daily basis.