Constance Anne Wilson (12 July 1927 – 8 January 2023) was a British food historian and librarian.

Early life and education

Wilson was born in

Gower The Gower Peninsula (), or simply Gower (), is a peninsula in the south-west of Wales. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan, and is now within the City and County of Swansea. It projects towards the Bristol Channel ...

, near

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

, the elder daughter of Rowland Wilson (later

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Swansea University Swansea University () is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it chang ...

) and his wife Constance Laycock. She attended Mumbles primary school and Glanmor Grammar School for Girls, Swansea and then followed her mother to

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...

where she read

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

. She subsequently obtained a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

postgraduate diploma fILE:Prédio Pós Graduação IMECC Unicamp.jpg, The State University of Campinas, as well as many Brazilian universities, offer Postgraduate courses in Brazil A postgraduate diploma (PgD, PgDip, PGDip, PG Dip., PGD, Dipl. PGD) is a postgraduat ...

in the

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

of the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

and the

Roman Provinces The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as gover ...

Career

In 1961, Wilson was appointed an Assistant Librarian in the

Brotherton Library The Brotherton Library is a 1936 Grade II listed Neoclassical building with some art deco fittings, located on the main campus of the University of Leeds. It was designed by the firm of Lanchester & Lodge, and is named after Edward Brothert ...

at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. She was subject librarian for classics, archaeology, and ancient history, to which she subsequently added art and music. In the mid-1960s she catalogued the John F. Preston collection of historic cookery books (at the time a recent gift to the Library), which led to her developing an interest in food history. She published the wide-ranging ''Food and Drink in Britain'' in 1973, and her more specialised ''The Book of

Marmalade Marmalade (from the Portuguese ''marmelada'') is a fruit preserves, fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits boiled with sugar and water. The well-known version is made from bitter orange. It also has been made from lemons ...

: its antecedents, its history and its rôle in the world today'' won the 1984 Diagram Prize for the oddest title of the year at the

Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: , FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. The five-day annual event in mid-October is held at the Frankfurt Trade Fair grounds in Frankfurt am ...

. In 2006 she published ''Water of Life: a history of wine-distilling and spirits; 500 BC - AD 2000''. She edited several volumes of the proceedings of the ''Leeds Symposium on Food History and Tradition''. Wilson retired from

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

in 1992.

Death

Wilson died on 8 January 2023, at the age of 95.

Works

*1973: ''Food and Drink in Britain from the Stone Age to Recent Times''. London: Constable *1984: ''Philosophers, ''iōsis'' and Water of Life''. Leeds:

Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society is a learned society in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1819, and its museum collection forms the basis of Leeds City Museum, which reopened in September 2008. The printed works and p ...

*1985: ''The Book of Marmalade: its antecedents, its history and its rôle in the world today, together with a collection of recipes for marmalades & marmalade cookery''. London: Constable *2006: ''Water of Life: a history of wine-distilling and spirits from 500 BC - AD 2000''. Totnes: Prospect Books

As editor

*1991: ''"Banquetting stuffe": the fare and social background of the Tudor and Stuart banquet'' (Proceedings of the 1st Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions). Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP *1991: ''The Appetite and the Eye: visual aspects of food and its presentation within their historic context'' (Proceedings of the 2nd Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions). Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP *1991: ''Traditional Food East and West of the Pennines'' (Proceedings of the 3rd Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions), Edinburgh UP, 1991 *1991: ''Waste Not, Want Not: food preservation from early times to the present day''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP *1993: ''"Liquid Nourishment": potable foods and stimulating drinks'' (Proceedings of the 5th Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions). Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP *1993: ''Food for the community : special diets for special groups'' (Proceedings of the 6th Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions). Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP *1993: ''Traditional Country House Cooking''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson *1994: ''Luncheon, Nuncheon and Other Meals: eating with the Victorians''. Stroud: Sutton **2004: ''Eating with the Victorians''. Stroud: Sutton (Previous ed. published as: Luncheon, nuncheon and other meals, 1994.) *1998: ''The Country House Kitchen Garden, 1600-1950: how produce was grown and how it was used'' (Based on papers from the 10th Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions). Stroud: Sutton

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, C. Anne 1927 births 2023 deaths People from the Gower Peninsula English food writers British social historians People associated with the University of Leeds Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of London Academic librarians