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Lead book review

The humble biscuit has a noble history

Prue Leith traces the biscuit’s surprisingly colourful history

31 October 2020

9:00 AM

31 October 2020

9:00 AM

The Biscuit: The History of a Very British Indulgence Lizzie Collingham

The Bodley Head, pp.320, 18.99

Sin-eating is an old European practice. After a person’s death, during the period of lying-in, a biscuit would be placed on the corpse in its coffin. Before the burial, one of the mourners would eat it in order to take on the sins of the departed and allow them to move on into the next life free of the burdens of their transgressions.

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