The idea for the book came from two directions. During the completion of my PhD dissertation on food and drink symbolism in Anglo-Saxon culture I became aware that many pre-Christian graves seem to contain animal bone, the purpose of which was left largely unexplained. Whereas species reports are now habitually part of an archaeological examination, osteological evaluations are still mostly placed at the back of publications in ‘specialist reports’. This creates the impression that animal bone is not part of the grave inventory. However, the joints and pots containing food were clearly meant to be deliberate inclusions, and should therefore be studied in the grave context.

The second motive for writing the book came from personal observation. Since I moved to England I have not only become aware of different foods, many of which refer to special occasions, but also of the significance of different ways of consumption. Table manners require the mastering of a multitude of rules, which have to be learned by the foreigner just as much as the language. Do you serve yourself or do you wait to be served? How much food should you consume, without appearing to be a greedy or fussy eater? Additionally, some British communities will have special eating rules, such as using the right hand only, whereas other English-speaking people have different manners altogether, as Americans, for example, do not use their knives to move food around their plates. In most cases neglecting these rules will not matter to the host, but for the incomer wanting to ‘blend in’ it is almost impossible to ‘unlearn’ habits. Since the conversion to Christianity is supposed to have influenced many changes in the eating habits of the Anglo-Saxons, as for example, monastic and clerical rules, which made the eating of certain foods undesirable (such as horseflesh), or which introduced new manners of consumption (such as fasting and the replacement of fish for meat), it is interesting to question the length of the transition process.

Differences in the way food is consumed are not just connected to table manners; they are often linked to deep-rooted cultural attitudes. The death of my father-in-law introduced me to another custom I had not experienced before: friends arrived with pre-cooked food dishes, which were offered to the bereaved to express their condolence.