"The chimneys of Buckland Manor ..."

    "... tunnelled up from the depths of the kitchens, through the dark tonnage of stone and brick above. Sliding between walls and driving through floors, the hot channels funnelled heat, smoke and smells as they twisted past receiving rooms and jinked around chambers, wriggled past corridors and galleries, leaving enigmatic traces in the fabric of the house. Purposeless buttresses bulged from walls. Smoke percolated through cracks in the plaster. Certain corners of the house were inexplicably hot and chambers adjoining both the East and West Wings were infiltrated by the smells of roasting meat, or baking bread, or soup ...

    The whiffs and stinks came and went. Hotspots drifted, as if the flues of whirling fire and fumes writhed within the massive stonework, splitting and rejoining, rearing and rising until the thick brick fingers broke into the root stores and apple lofts under the eaves, driving through the attics where the maids huddled in the depths of winter, pressing themselves to the hot walls and waking to the morning tocsin of ladle on cauldron which resounded up from the kitchens below."

From John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk.

Comments

[Sue]

Ooh, I so want to read this book.

[Cornflower]

I'm not yet halfway through, but I think it's wonderful!

[Fay]

In June Book Expo America released a sampling of forthcoming books, and this novel is one they featured. The free download is available for several platforms.
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/bea/2012/BuzzBook.html

The excerpted chapter shows a wealth of period detail about daily life and the culinary culture of the day. The novel will be released in the USA in a couple of days. To be read.

[Cornflower]

Many thanks for that link, Fay.
The book is indeed full of fascinating detail, and I'm loving it.

[Gavin]

I want to read it, too! I'm going to the link right now..

[Cornflower]

Great! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I am, Gavin.