The Taste of Empire

Jennifer Dixon's likable British accent fits Collingham's food history of the British Empire well, but her reading is too imperial--slow, stately, and elevated--in manner. Furthermore, her use of tone and emphasis to convey meaning is inconsistent. She is often proficient but at other times seems as if she's not fully engaged with the text or is encountering it for the first time, reading word by word, with misplaced emphasis and even incorrect wording. And it is all too slow. Her pace and manner suggest an earlier work than the contemporary nonfiction this is; the listener's mind has too much time to wander amid the stately procession of sentences. While Dixon's reading is still generally adequate, this interesting book deserves better. W.M. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine