This is the best and most inspiring book I have read in a long time and is an easy five stars from me. It's written by Kitty and Al Tait who are daughter and father. In 2018, when she was 14, Kitty was struggling with mental health issues and found making bread helped her. Soon she was making loaves for the neighbours and orders for more starting pouring in. Kitty's father was taking time off his career as a teacher to be alongside Kitty and support her during this difficult time.. Kitty is clearly very focussed and determined and before long their small home was filled with an industrial oven and other bread making paraphernalia with flour dust everywhere. Within a year of so Kitty and Al had opened The Orange Bakery in their village of Watlington near Oxford and one day Al realised that he was no longer a teacher but a baker. This book is written in the voices of both Kitty and Al with lovely illustrations by Al. Both have a delightful and slightly quickly way of communicating which bring joy to the reader. The first half of the book is their story of building up the business from that first loaf and the second half is recipes by Kitty for bread and bread related products. As someone who got into making sourdough bread at the start of the pandemic due to the lack of availability of yeast I had an interest in this book for the recipes but actually the story won me over and charmed me completely. I'm going to be near Watlington later this year and I am already planning my visit to The Orange Bakery. Having looked at many recipes these past two years as I got to grip with making sourdough bread I can 100% recommend Kitty's recipes. They are clear, simple and sensible. I have seen so many sourdough recipes elsewhere which have so many unnecessary steps in and make such a palaver of the process that you wonder why anyone bothers. 10/10 to Kitty for the clarity of her recipes. I am still only making basic sourdough loaves with the occasional foray into crumpets, bagels and doughnuts. Kitty's recipes have inspired me to try a lot more and I shall be heading into the territory of puff pastry, pains au chocolate and anything with a segment of a Terry's Chocolate Orange inside. The photographs of the finished products and in the whole of this book are gorgeous. I love the use of old and nostalgic items to display the bread products, I even rushed to my bookshelf to check my Enid Blyton red hardback books from the 50s and 60s as I have some of the ones used in one of the photos! This is not just the story of Kitty and Al but her very understanding and supportive Mum and older brother and sister. And also all of the population of Watlington which seems like a wonderful community to live in. I can thoroughly recommend every aspect o f this book and will be going back to it time and time again as I try out the recipes and just look at the beautiful illustrations and photos. With thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

'Breadsong' is a brilliant combination of memoir and cookbook written by daughter and father Kitty and Al Tait. I had heard a little bit about the story of The Orange Bakery and the story behind it from a friend who lives in Watlington but it was great to read the whole story in their own words. When Kitty was 14, she became seriously unwell with anxiety and depression, and somehow her father came up with the idea of making bread as a way of dealing with this. In the first half of the book, they tell the story of how this went from hobby to cottage industry to a full-blown business thanks to Kitty's passion and enthusiasm and the lots of support of family, neighbours and strangers online. The second half contains a lovely selection of recipes for breads, pastries and other bakes, many of which Kitty has invented from scratch and carry deep personal significance. I enjoyed reading their story and am looking forward to trying some of the recipes, which are clearly explained and beautifully presented.Overall, this is a delightful and rather moving book about food, family, pain and recovery. It would be great as a gift or bought for oneself! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

I have devoured this book, and laughed and cried at the story of Kitty and her dad. And the recipes are clearly laid out and easy to follow. Anything good be tried has worked out well so far too.

I stayed up until 2am reading Breadsong this morning. I had to, I had to see it through to the end. Kitty, at 14 quickly spiralled from bubbly teen into a dark depression and her family gave their all to help her initially survive, and then to thrive. Kitty and Dad Al both tell their story throughout the book and I loved it. Looking forward to the finished product. I received an advanced proof, so thank you Bloomsbury.

This is a review of an unfinished ARC, received through NetGalley. Unfinished because I'm so excited about this book that I know that I need to get it as Hardback. I started with the introduction and fell in love with the Tait family and their story. There is so much love at the heart of this book. The Tait parents are living their lives as best they can and they sound no different from the busy, hectic lifestyle we take as the norm these days. But when their youngest child, Kitty, shows signs of suffering the parents make changes, they make way for a new set of priorities and they take a journey of discovery: of the magic behind the perfect loaf and the magic behind contentment. The writing style of both Al and Kitty is really engaging. The honesty and openness at the centre engages the heart and soul of the reader. I love them for their courage, their trust and belief. I admit that after reading the first few chapters that I knew that I would need more than the ARC for this book so I skipped to the recipes that start at halfway through the book with a basic no-knead bread recipe. I've made yeast bread before, years ago, but not regularly. I loved the no-faff approach and the accessible way that the recipe is written. A scrappy dough is now waiting to do its Cinderella overnight magic trick and I'm excited for the next steps tomorrow morning. Looking through the rest of the recipes I'm really impressed at the range of "basic" breads from bagels to soda bread, challah to pitta, and some I'd never even heard of before such as Fatayers and Bialys. There's a whole chapter on Sourdough too. As someone who didn't get into the sourdough craze during lockdown, I will reserve comment on whether this book will prove (see what I did there) to be the final temptation. Then there's the section on Sweet Doughs - Fika buns, Chelsea Buns, Semlor, doughnuts, Panettone; a section of recipes for Pastries - cheese straws, pains au chocolat, croissants; finishing off with a section of recipes for Cookies and Cakes including Caramelised Banana Bread, Ultimate Brown Butter Choc Chip Cookies as well as several recipes that combine flavours I would never have thought of i.e. chocolate & tahini or miso fudge!! The hardcopy of this book is going on my bookshelf in the near future, to become dusted in flour and encrusted with dough. And I can't wait!