Reviews
Calories and Corsets: A history of dieting over 2,000 years
A compelling history … She has many facts, and she assembles them in a such a way that they more than eloquently make her case. That is the great pleasure of this book … her style is pacy, and she has a wonderfully light touch.
The Times Book of the Week 07/01/2012
Immensely readable and very enjoyable, brilliantly researched and filled with fascinating, often hilarious facts.
Arabella Weir
At last, a book on dieting that is sensible, and better still, entertaining … a lively history
Independent
Mixing science with fashion and celebrity, this enlightening book gives the full skinny on lean, fat and in-between.
Saga Magazine
Meticulously researched, Calories And Corsets is packed with intriguing details – some jaw-dropping, others laugh-out-loud funny – that make it an easy and enjoyable read.
Scotland Herald
An entertaining and occasionally stomach-churning history … Foxcroft's book is full of startling anecdotes, but she also has a serious purpose … her recommendations are eminently sensible.
Joan Smith, Literary Review
Foxcroft - whose writing recalls the late father of medical history, Roy Porter - tells what is essentially a grim and visceral tale with wit and sprezzatura
Week
The modern history of dieting … could be a depressing tale, but in Foxcroft’s deft hands it’s fascinating … Foxcroft does this admirably, and with wit. This short volume would be a wise investment for anyone.
Financial Times
A history of dieting over the last two thousand years, it's an extremely readable book that will have you laughing and gaping and even shuddering at times. It's fun, fascinating and, yes, filling!
www.thebookbag.co.uk Non-fiction Book of the Month January 2012
Louise Foxcroft’s authoritative history … researched with great dedication and skill … plenty of good stories here.
The Spectator
You'll lap this up.
Evening Standard
Put down the diet book and pick up Louise Foxcroft's history of dieting over the past 2,000 years.
Daily Mail
A welcome addition to the fields of food and body histories … there is some substantial scholarship here.
BBC History Magazine
Anybody with an appetite for such unwholesome [dieting] texts should opt instead for Foxcroft's slim and sensible history … strong on the pressures borne by women throughout the ages.
Daily Telegraph
A book of such relentless good sense that I must recommend it.
Natalie Haynes, Prospect Magazine
This witty history of dieting is full of interesting facts. Most of all, it's a great reminder that the basic principles of weight loss never change.
Elle
Fascinating survey
New Statesman
Amusing and illuminating
Sunday Times
Foxcroft's scholarly expose of our eternal obsession with weight is not just hugely readable but also hugely relevant … there is no doubting the book's intellectual nutritional value.
Time Out
An entertaining book … particularly good on the genealogy of diets.
The Guardian
A fine piece of social history.
Courier mail, Australia
Foxcroft's astutely researched chronicle of dieting is amusing, alarming and poignant by turns.
Nature
This unique and witty history … is a must-read … humorous yet informative … enlightening and entertaining.
Trashionista
Put down the diet book and pick up Louise Foxcroft’s history of dieting over the past 2 000 years.
Independent Online NZ
'Taking care of the whole', Foxcroft concludes at the end of this entertaining and colourful book, is the only real 'secret' to sustained weight loss. And to that we should surely all say Amen.
The Lady
Hot Flushes, Cold Science: A history of the modern menopause
Not many Cambridge academics can make you laugh aloud and gasp with shock. Louise Foxcroft does both in a rampaging history of the relationship between doctors and the menopause through three centuries.
Libby Purves, Mail On Sunday
This is a gripping book … impassioned argument … packed full of thought-provoking information … read this book.
India Knight, Evening Standard
Shows how and why the menopause remains a taboo … Liberate yourself from your fears is Foxcroft's final message. Ageing is not a disease and affects both sexes.
Virginia Smith, Observer
Louise Foxcroft is soooo right. There's a whole steaming pile of negative assumptions about the menopause out there … [this] fine and sympathetic study … is so much more than a book about the end of something. No: it's about how women are primarily judged by their age, and by their appearance.
Rachel Johnson, The First Post
Challenges the myths around that feared 'M' word, the menopause, and roused my militant spirit from its embers!
Mariella Frostrup, Psychologies
Brave and scholarly … Foxcroft fights back.
Gail Vines, Independent
Lively and well-researched … most of the ideas you will encounter about the menopause have been informed and distorted by the most grotesque misogyny, stretching back two and a half thousand years, which [Foxcroft] demonstrates in forensic detail … Louise Foxcroft's book is an essential counterblast.
Joan Smith, Literary Review
A witty new feminist voice.
Guardian
Passionate and rigorous work.
Fiona Capp, The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
In this well-crafted book, Louise Foxcroft reveals the underbelly of a history rife with chauvinism, misogyny, and collusion… Foxcroft's book bristles with facts crucial for women to understand … reminds us of the need for good medical research in this area … It's a must read.
The Lancet
A gripping study of western attitudes to women of a certain age and older … complete with extensive end notes and an entertainingly compiled index … Scared of the change or just keen on social history? Here's your book.
Mary Crockett, The Scotsman