Melanie King

From the tale of the goatherd whose animals became frisky on coffee berries to a duchess with a goblet of poisoned chocolate, Tea, Coffee & Chocolate, illustrated with eighteenth-century satirical cartoons and early advertisements, tells the extraordinary story of our favourite hot drinks. Did you know that coffee was recommended as protection against the bubonic plague in the seventeenth century?...

English spas have a long and steamy history, from the thermal baths of Aquae Sulis in Bath to the stews of Southwark, the elegant pump rooms of Cheltenham and Buxton to the Victorian mania for hydrotherapy and Turkish hammams. The Secret History of English Spas is an informative but light-hearted social and cultural history of our obsession with drinking and...