Pushkin's One to publish 'bold thinking' on cookery

Pushkin Press imprint One is to publish a work of food writing, social criticism and "bold thinking" by Rebecca May Johnson.

Deputy publisher Laura Macaulay acquired British Commonwealth rights for Small Fires: Pleasure and Resistance in the Kitchen from Harriet Moore at David Higham Associates.

She said: "Rebecca is a unique talent, and her compelling book is a truly original approach to food and food writing. This reconsideration of domestic life feels particularly important right now, when so many of us are working from our kitchen tables, and I’m delighted to be publishing it."

The book is described as a "feminist repurposing of home cooking" and examines what it meant to be "present in the kitchen".

Johnson is a writer and academic whose writing has appeared in Granta, Fantastic Man, the Times Literary Supplement and LRB online among others.

She said: "The thoughts behind Small Fires have simmering for 10 years and developing them into a book with Harriet’s fierce support has been so creatively and intellectually rewarding. I am now incredibly excited to finish the project with Laura, with whom I felt an immediate editorial spark when we first spoke."

The book will be published on the One list in early 2022.