Title: FOOD. History of the Second World War. ...
Publisher: London:Her Majesty's Stationery Office and Longmans, Green & Co.
Publication Date: 1951
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Good
Edition: 1st
COMPLETE THREE VOLUME SET, 1951, 1956 & 1962. xii, 436; xiii, 835; xiii, 836 printed pages. 59 charts, tables & diagrams. Loosely inserted is a hand written letter from John Strachey, appointed Minister of Food in May 1946 and Privy Counsellor that same year. It is addressed to Sir George Bishop OBE, CB ("G.S.B."), dated August 1949 & says "To the perfect Private Secretary, after four years with barely a skid". Also loosely inserted is a sheet of paper dating from the 1960s in Bishop's miniscule ink hand referring to Field Marshal Montgomery's claim that post-war Germany was experiencing "famine conditions to an extent which no civilised people should inflict upon their beaten enemies", the efforts of politicians Sir Ben Smith and Herbert Morrison (who visited Washington in search of further U.S. help), and the explanation that "Britain had done all they could" (but not sufficient to avoid bread rationing in July 1946, to which Winston Churchill -in opposition- said that the announcement was ""one of the gravest I have ever heard in time of peace. In the rationing of bread, [there is] one very great difficulty, namely, that it is consumed in immense quantities by the poorer people, and that the shortage of other foods, or a rise in prices of other foods, increases the eating of bread"). Bread rationing had been avoided throughout the course of both World Wars, even at the height of the crises when wheat shipments from America had been decimated by German submarines. 17 x 25 cm. original blue cloth. Very minor shelf wear to the head & tail of the spine of volume 1 and very slight fading to the foot of the spine of all volumes. Complete with original dustwrappers with blue and red lettering and the Royal cypher. The dustwrapper for volume 1 is split at the rear hinge and is lacking 2 cm at the head of the spine. Provenance: from the library of Sir George Bishop C.B., O.B.E. (1913-99), the youngest ever Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Food 1945-9. During the war he ran the Emergency Services Division of the Ministry of Food which, along with the Women's Voluntary Service, was responsible for bringing food and refreshment to the victims of German bombing throughout the UK. The arrival of cups of tea and fresh bread did much for morale and a cup of hot sweet tea was the standard treatment for shock as advised by first aid manuals of the time. Bishop was greatly helped in the anticipation of the bombing raids and consequent food needs by the code breakers at Bletchley. Bookseller Inventory # 4362