Eliza Acton

An English poet and cook, Eliza Acton (1799-1859) is responsible for producing one of the country's first cookbooks aimed at the domestic reader rather than the professional cook or chef. Having spent time in France and published a volume of romantic poems on her return to England, Acton published the first edition of Modern Cookery in 1845 to immediate success. Her second book, The English Bread Book, an account of the history of bread and baking, was published in 1857.