'Extraordinary' TELEGRAPH ¿¿¿¿¿ 'Delightful' GUARDIAN 'Bee Wilson is one of my favourite
writers and this may be her best book' CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN This strikingly original account from
award-winning food writer Bee Wilson charts how everyday objects take on deeply personal
meanings in all our lives. One ordinary day the tin in which Bee Wilson baked her wedding cake
fell to the ground at her feet. This should have been unremarkable except that her marriage
had just ended. Unsettled by her own feelings about the heart-shaped tin Wilson begins a
search for others who have attached strong and even magical meanings to kitchen objects. She
meets people who deal with grief or pain by projecting emotions onto certain objects whether
it is a beloved parent's salt shaker a cracked pasta bowl or an inherited china dinner
service. Remembering her own mother a dementia sufferer she explores the ways that both of
them have been haunted by deciding which kitchen utensils to hold on to and which to get rid of
when you think you are losing your mind. Looking to different continents cultures and
civilisations to investigate the full scope of this phenomenon Wilson blends her own
experiences with a series of touching personal stories that reflect the irrational and
fundamentally human urge to keep mementos. Why would a man trapped in a concentration camp
decide to make a spoon for himself? Why do some people hoard? What do gifts mean? How do we
decide what is junk and what is treasure? We see firsthand how objects can contain hidden
symbols keep the past alive and even become powerful symbols of identity and resistance from
a child's first plate to a refugee's rescued vegetable corers. Thoughtful tender and
beautifully written The Heart-Shaped Tin is a moving examination of love loss broken cups
and the legacy of things we all leave behind. 'With candour and intelligence Wilson highlights
how the props of domestic life become markers of the progress of our lives but more movingly
she probes that it's possible to recover from heartache with gusto' The Times & Sunday Times
Books of the Year 2025 'Fascinating and also tender' Diana Henry 'This beautifully written book
about the deep significance of certain objects in our kitchen - is nothing less than an intense
compassionate expression of the human condition ... Both intimate and expansive The
Heart-Shaped Tin is a book I know I'll give urgently and importantly to those I love' Nigella
Lawson 'Very few food writers can do what Bee does. It made me think again - and with more
tenderness - about the kitchen objects that I ordinarily take for granted. These are the human
stories embedded in our material culture and Bee brings them effortlessly to life' Ruby Tandoh
'Heart-wrenching and heart-warming in equal measure. No one is so good at capturing the
everyday magic of kitchens cooking and life as Bee Wilson' Letitia Clark 'Bee Wilson has
changed the landscape of the kitchen by breathing life into ordinary objects. Through this
remarkable book you will find yourself discovering meaning in plates sadness in spoons love
in a measuring cup. I want to give this book to every cook I know' Ruth Reichl 'A moving and
fascinating exploration of the vital role played by household objects in our love of home and
family' Sophie Hannah
