Been reading more of the life of Elizabeth David. It was truly extraordinary one expects nothing less of a woman so wonderfully capable at her craft. My admiration is slightly mitigated by the knowledge that she came from an immensely privileged lifestyle that furnished her with the means to [quote] her friend Norman Douglas] "Always do as you please, and send everybody to Hell, and take the consequences.” But that in no way diminishes her efforts and contribution to the elevation of us all no matter our background.
All biographies are somewhat flawed but Artemis Cooper has captured the essence of the person in the book. The book does ramble on a bit though; but given Elizabeth David was such a private person one expects Artemis Cooper to have to include indifferent minutiae of her life to make a book of any length. I put the cover below.

The snow can come but ultimately it always dissolves into days of warmer disposition. There is a heavy frost outside and my mind strays to all the warm places she visited and the food she must have tasted. What a character to head off to all these places under her own steam. She never seemed to let a lack of money stop her doing as she pleased. Perhaps that is how we should live, no clock no money, no notion of tomorrow and consume no more than we need. Living only for the day we woke up in...If only life could ever be that simple.

As laughter rises into flowering cherry tree
A solitary yacht moored on an empty blue sea
Softens the view, mellows the heart of she

A mistral may blow among olive and pine
But a bowl of olives, good bread and wine
And Elizabeth David for company, simply divine

She saw the world in a lobster’s sheen
Realised potential no others had seen
Elizabeth David our British culinary queen