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Beatrice Dorothy "Bee" Wilson (born 7 March 1974) is a British
food writer Food writing is a genre of writing that focuses on food and includes works by food critics, food journalists, chefs and food historians. Definition Food writers regard food as a substance and a cultural phenomenon. John T. Edge, an American food ...
, journalist and the author of seven books on food-related subjects as well as a campaigner for food education through the charity TastEd. She writes the 'Table Talk' column for ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
''.


Early life and education

Bee Wilson has said that she 'learned how to cook sitting at the kitchen table, reading her mother's cookbooks, starting with ''The Penguin Cookery Book''. Wilson attended
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
as an undergraduate studying History, and it was from
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
that she received her doctorate for a dissertation on early French utopian socialism. She received a Master's degree in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania while on a fellowship from the
Thouron Award The Thouron Award is a prestigious postgraduate scholarship established in 1960 by Sir John R.H. Thouron, K.B.E., and Esther du Pont Thouron. It was created to strengthen the "special relationship" between the United States and the United Kingdom ...
. In 1997, while still a graduate student, she appeared as a contestant on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
cooking show
Masterchef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking show television format created by Franc Roddam, which originated with the UK version in July 1990. The format was revived and updated for the BBC in February 2005 by executive producers Roddam and John ...
, reaching the semi-final stage.


Career

After a brief academic career as a research fellow in the History of Ideas at St John's College,
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
, Wilson began writing a series of books linking food with wider themes of health, psychology and history. In 2005, she published her first book: ''The Hive: the Story of the Honeybee and Us'' published by John Murray.
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
called it a 'sprightly hymn to the honeybee'. It examined the human relationship with honeybees and the way in which the beehive has been used as a metaphor for human models of work, love, politics and life. It also included honey-based recipes. Wilson's next book, in 2008, was ''Swindled: From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee - The Dark History of the Food Cheats''. This was a history of food fraud from ancient times to the present day. This was followed, in 2012, by ''Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat''. This was a history of kitchen technologies, from fire to ice, from pots and pans to knives; to the spork. It has been translated into Spanish, German, Italian, Korean and Portuguese. Wilson's publisher, Basic Books explains that'Technology in the kitchen does not just mean the Pacojets and sous-vide machines of the modern kitchen, but also the humbler tools of everyday cooking and eating: a wooden spoon and a skillet, chopsticks and forks'. In 2016, Wilson's book ''First Bite: How We Learn to Eat'' was a change of direction. It was the first of Wilson's books to address the practical psychology of eating rather than the history of food. Its main thesis is that human food habits are learned, from childhood onwards, and that they can also be relearned or unlearned at any age. 'The wonderful secret of being an omnivore is that we can adjust our desires, even late in the game'.''First Bite'' won the Special Commendation Award at the Andre Simon Food and Drink Awards and Food Book of the Year at the
Fortnum & Mason Fortnum & Mason (colloquially often shortened to just Fortnum's) is an upmarket department store in Piccadilly, London, with additional stores at The Royal Exchange, St Pancras railway station, Heathrow Airport in London and K11 Musea In Hong ...
Food and Drink Awards. That book was described in the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
'' as being "about the pleasure of eating and how we can reconnect with this". In 2020, her book ''The Way We Eat Now: Strategies for Eating in a World of Change'' won Food Book of the Year at the Fortnum and Mason Food and Drink Awards In 2020,
The Bookseller ''The Bookseller'' is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Philip Jones is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine and the website. The magazine is home to the ''Bookseller''/Diagram Prize for Oddest ...
reported that Wilson was writing her first cookbook, ''The Secret of Cooking''. Alongside writing books, Wilson has also been a prolific journalist, mostly writing about food but sometimes covering other subjects such as film, biography, music and history. For five years from 1998, Wilson was the weekly food critic of the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'' magazine, where she wrote about subjects such as school meals, the history of food and ingredients such as vanilla, tinned tomatoes, melons and butter. After that, Wilson wrote the "Kitchen Thinker" column in ''
The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...
''s "Stella" magazine for twelve years. For the column, she was named the Guild of Food Writers food journalist of the year in 2004, 2008 and 2009. Wilson has written book reviews and other articles for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'' and ''
The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
''. She has written "Page Turner" blogs for ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' on ideas about the recipe. She has contributed articles to the '' London Review of Books'', on subjects such as film, biography, history and music as well as the history of the restaurant in London. Most recently, she has written a series of Long Reads for
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
on subjects ranging from clean eating to ultra-processed food to the history of the British curryhouse. Wilson was the chair of the
Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery The Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery is an annual weekend conference at which academics, food writers, cooks, and others with an interest in food and culture meet to discuss current issues in food studies and food history. Overview The Sympo ...
from 2015-2017. In 2019, Wilson co-founded a U.K. food education charity, TastEd, which describes itself as working 'to give every child the opportunity to experience the joy of fresh vegetables and fruits'. TastEd (short for Taste Education) is part of the Sapere network of food education which is used in a number of countries including Finland, Sweden and France and which 'was created out of the conviction that taste education is good for health'. In 2020, she was one of the judges of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.


Personal life

Wilson is the daughter of the writer A. N. Wilson and the academic
Katherine Duncan-Jones Katherine Dorothea Duncan-Jones, (13 May 1941 – 16 October 2022) was an English literature and Shakespeare scholar. She was a Fellow of New Hall, Cambridge (1965–1966) and then Somerville College, Oxford (1966–2001). She was also Professo ...
. Her sister is the classicist Emily Wilson. She was married to the Cambridge political scientist
David Runciman David Walter Runciman, 4th Viscount Runciman of Doxford, (born 1 March 1967) is an English academic who teaches politics and history at Cambridge University, where he is Professor of Politics. From October 2014 to October 2018 he was also Head ...
but they are now divorced. They have three children together.


Reception

'Be brave. Drop the diet. Make peace. If any book can effect long-term weight loss, it should be this one', wrote Melanie Reid in
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
, reviewing ''First Bite''. In
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
, Rachel Cooke wrote 'Wilson is a brilliant researcher' and 'has unearthed science that makes sense of our most intimate and tender worlds. Responding to ''The Hive'' in
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
critic Nicholas Lezard wrote that 'For a moment you may feel, as I did, that part of Wilson's research for this book involved turning into a bee for a few days...You pretty soon realise that there is no dull fact about bees, whether we regard them for themselves, or for the metaphorical uses to which they are put by social commentators.' Writing in ''
The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'', Wendell Steavenson described Bee Wilson's 2019 book ''The Way We Eat Now'' as 'clear and vital reading...an authoritative and brilliantly compelling description of the economic, political and emotional issues around our food'. According to ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' writer
Jane Kramer Jane Kramer (born August 7, 1938) is an American journalist who is the European correspondent for ''The New Yorker''; she has written a regular "Letter from Europe" for twenty years. Kramer has also written nine books, the latest of which, ''Lone ...
, "Bee Wilson describes herself as a food writer. That's half the story". In Kramer's opinion, writing about ''Consider the Fork'', Wilson writes on food as it relates to history, ideas and human life. In ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', Dawn Drzal described Wilson as "a congenial kitchen oracle".


Works

*''The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us'', John Murray, 2004 *''Swindled: From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee'', John Murray and
Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...
, 2008 *''Sandwich: A Global History'', Reaktion Books, 2010 *''Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat'', Basic Books, 2012 (history of kitchen technology, from fire to the
AeroPress The AeroPress is a manual coffeemaker invented by Alan Adler, founder of AeroPress, Inc. It consists of a cylindrical chamber, and a plunger with an airtight silicone seal, similar to a syringe. Ground coffee beans and water are steeped inside, ...
) :: Translated into Spanish as ''La importancia del tenedor. Historia, inventos y artilugios en la cocina'', Turner, 2013 *''First Bite: How We Learn to Eat'', Basic Books and Fourth Estate :: Translated into Spanish as ''El primer bocado. Cómo aprendemos a comer'', Turner, 2016 *''This is Not a Diet Book: A User's Guide to Eating Well.'', Harper Collins, 2016 *''The Way We Eat Now. Strategies for eating in a world of change.'', Harper Collins, 2019 :: Published in the US as ''The Way We Eat Now: How the Food Revolution Has Transformed Our Lives, Our Bodies, and Our World'', Basic Books, 2019


References


External links




"Consider the Fork" website

Bee Wilson
contributor page at ''The Guardian''
Bee Wilson
contributor page at the ''New Statesman''
Bee Wilson
contributor page at ''The Telegraph''
The Oxford Symposium
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Bee 1974 births Living people English journalists People from Oxford English food writers Women food writers English women journalists 20th-century British journalists 20th-century British women writers 21st-century British journalists 21st-century British women writers Runciman family 20th-century English women 20th-century English people 21st-century English women 21st-century English people