Saturday, May 14
New Bern author Simon Spalding will present a lecture on his book, “Food at Sea: Shipboard Cuisine from Ancient to Modern Times” (ISBN 9781442227361, publ. Rowman & Littlefield) in the Hayden H. Jones Auditorium of the New Bern-Craven County Library at 2:00 pm on Saturday, May 14.
Spalding’s book is the first to cover the history of food at sea from the Stone Age to the present. Along the way, his book explores the maritime foodways of the ancient Mediterranean, Vikings, medieval war galleys, Spanish and English explorers, sailing navies and merchant fleets, immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, and East Asia, steamships and ocean liners, submarines, and cruise ships. The book includes important primary research into the food of medieval mariners, food aboard navy ships in the American Civil War, and many other topics. “Food at Sea” has received rave reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Sea History Magazine, and from readers. Mr. Spalding has been interviewed about the book by BBC World Service and Peter Greenberg-CBS, and he has presented lectures on the book at maritime museums in California, Virginia, and Maryland.
The lecture and book-signing is free to the public. Copies of the book will be available for purchase, and samples of food from the book’s recipe section will be served.
The New Bern-Craven County Library is located at 400 Johnson Street, in Historic Downtown New Bern. For more information on the event, call 252-638-7800.
Submitted by: Simon Spalding