Hachette India

Crunch: The History of Crisps

Natalie Whittle

'It's a triumph.'
Nigella Lawson

'An absolute tour de force . . . I devoured it until the very last crumb and then licked the packet.'
Felicity Cloake

'Nourishing . . . fascinating . . . comforting. It's good to know I'm not the only one with such strong feelings about [crisps] . . . I highly recommend.'
Adrian Chiles

We are a nation of crisp obsessives. Squashed into sandwiches on our lunch breaks and torn-open as centrepieces on pub tables, we buy tens of millions of packets every single day. But how did the humble potato snack become a national dish?

CRUNCH is a love letter to the salty siren. It traces their evolution from the simplicity of salt sachets in the early 20th century, to 80s childhood favourites such as Hula Hoops, to the popularity of 'hand-cooked' gourmet flavours today.

Featuring crisp collectors, potato growers, flavour wizards and more, CRUNCH is a moreish read spanning 150 years of crisp history.

Natalie Whittle

Natalie Whittle is a writer and editor based in Glasgow. Born and raised in South Wales, she read English Literature at University College London, and lived in Paris for three years working as a Time Out Paris journalist. She worked for 15 years at the Financial Times in London, where she held editing roles across the magazine and arts sections of FT Weekend. As the FT's food and drink editor, she won an award from the Guild of Food Writers in 2015 and also collaborated with Penguin Random House to produce a compilation of the FT's gastronomic interviews, 'Lunch with the FT: A Second Helping' in 2019.