Smart Tart

The Art of the Tart appealed to cooks of all ages and abilities, even those who didn't 'do' pastry. Smart Tart is a book about food and how it defines us - in 15 autobiographical sketches, Tamasin takes us back to early memories of making jam tarts with her mother, the matchless taste of the Bakewell tart made by her grandparents' cook Rhoda, her father's elaborate Christmas rituals and the pleasures of tea at Fortnum & Mason with her brother Daniel. She writes at length of the beauty and restorative power of County Mayo in the west of Ireland and of the important role food played in the social revolution of the 1960s. In one of the most powerful pieces in the book she recounts six months teaching a group of local mums how to cook as part of a Homestart programme and how it transformed their lives.