Laura Mason
{{Short description|British food historian (1957–2021)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
|name=Laura Mason
|image=
|caption=
|birth_name=Laura Mason
|birth_date= 7 August 1957
|birth_place=Ilkley, Yorkshire, UK
|death_date= {{Death date and age|2021|02|02|1957|08|07|df=y}}
|death_place=
|nationality=British
|occupation=Food historian
|education=Ilkley Grammar School
Bradford College of Art
Leeds Polytechnic
|work_institutions=
|parents=
|spouse={{plainlist|
- Ian Tomlin
- Derek Johnson
}}
|relatives=
}}
Laura Mason (1957–2021) was a British food historian based in York.{{cite news |last1=Jaine |first1=Tom |title=Laura Mason obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/10/laura-mason-obituary |access-date=1 December 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=10 March 2021 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Gordon |first1=Maxine |title=Obituary: Laura Mason, 63, York food historian and writer |url=https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/19117549.obituary-laura-mason-63-york-food-historian-writer/ |access-date=1 December 2021 |work=York Press |language=en}} She studied home economics and food technology and published several books on cookery and its history.
Early life and education
Mason was born in Ilkley on 7 August 1957 and attended Ilkley Grammar School. Her father was a farmer and her mother a local historian. She took a foundation course at Bradford College of Art and a degree in home economics and a further degree in food technology at Leeds Polytechnic.
Career
In 1997 Mason co-authored The Taste of Britain with Catherine Brown, published by Harper-Collins with a foreword by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.{{cite news |title=Made in Britain: The histories behind our food |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/made-in-britain-the-histories-behind-our-food-418504.html |access-date=1 December 2021 |work=The Independent |date=2 October 2006 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=The Taste of Britain |url=https://www.slowfood.com/the-taste-of-britain/ |website=Slow Food International |access-date=1 December 2021 |date=5 November 2006}}
She published Sugar-Plums and Sherbert: a Prehistory of Sweets in 1998.{{cite journal |last1=Turner |first1=E. S. |title=Suck, chéri |journal=London Review of Books |date=29 October 1998 |volume=20 |issue=21 |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v20/n21/e.s.-turner/suck-cheri |access-date=1 December 2021 |language=en |issn=0260-9592}} As Alan Davidson's research assistant she wrote many of the articles in The Oxford Companion to Food (1999). She wrote several books for the National Trust: Farmhouse Cookery in 2005, and Book of Crumbles and Book of Afternoon Tea both in 2018, and Roasts in 2019. Her other publications included Sweets and Candy (2019) and Pine, about pine trees, in 2013.
Personal life
Mason lived in York after moving there in 1976. She married Ian Tomlin, who died in 1982, and in 2012 married Derek Johnson. She died of cancer on 2 February 2021.
Selected publications
- {{cite book |last1=Mason |first1=Laura |last2=Brown |first2=Catherine |title=The Taste of Britain |date=2006 |publisher=Harper Press |location=London |isbn=9780007241323}}
- {{cite book |last1=Mason |first1=Laura |title=Sugar-plums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets |date=1998 |publisher=Prospect Books |isbn=978-0907325833 |url= |language=en}}
References
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Category:British women historians
Category:People educated at Ilkley Grammar School
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