Frances Osborne took on the challenge of writing about her great-grandmother. The story was more of an epic covering a 100 years and three countries (England, India, and China).

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Interesting tale about one woman's coming of age China before the Great Way and then through World War II. The perspective is so different, because, though British, she has a real affinity for the native cultures where she lives and thinks of herself as a local - she's definitely not treated like one, though, and ends up being an outsider on every front. It's also a nice look at a woman's plight through this age told first hand. ( )

well-written, reasonable story, but somehow boring. ( )

With the flood of memoirs hitting the market, it’s strange that this exquisite book should stand out. I picked my copy up at a bookstore in Japantown in San Francisco, a further irony, and it’s been sitting on my bookshelf all this time awaiting my attention.
I’ve never been a “foodie” as they are now called in this capital of gourmetdom, a further irony. What drew my attention was the confluence of “old China hands” and the Japanese invasion of that nation during WWII, and this stalwart woman, Lilla, the younger of twins, against the background of the outpost of the Empire.
Written by a British descendant of the subject, the writer’s saturation and fascination with the details of the time make this a masterpiece of research, saturated with evocative descriptions of food. Osbourne even makes Lilla’s incarceration in a Japanese concentration camp for over three years a living breathing experience. As the discomforts of the experience segue into horrors that Lilla may not survive, Osborne lifts the tone beautifully with Lilla’s remembrances of "…tea cakes, scones, icing, she typed." (on a portable typewriter she’d lugged into imprisonment with her). "Dripping raisin cake. Chocolate layer cake. Honey gingerbread. Raspberry sandwich cake . . .” You get the drift. She kept her starving self and others alive with dreams of a luxurious life transcribed into a cookbook that would end up in the British Library’s Oriental and India Office Reading Room, which formed the core of Lilla’s Feast. Researched letters, photos, old journal notations, newspaper clippings establish authenticity and Osborne’s sure hand puts it all in balance. Even if you’re not a foodie, you’ll enjoy this book, as much for the endurance and solid willpower of the "Heavenly Twin" who overcame so much by writing a housewife’s cooking encyclopaedia.
Helenscribe/Author of "The Domino Deaths"

I can't believe nobody reviewed this most interesting book. Practically everybody I lent this to was so enthusiastic they lent it out to other readers!
This is a true story that could have been a sweeping saga of a novel.
During the height of England's Colonial era,Lilla and her twin sister were born in 1882 in Chefoo China. Her father like so many had gone there to seek his fortune. Her father died under tragic circumstances and her mother married "up" for the second time which vastly improved the family's circumstances. Lilla's first husband,an army officer took her far away from her family when he was posted to India. He was a bit of a cad and did not really want to be married to Lilla but she set about winning him over with her cooking. She was successful and they were married until he was killed in WW I. Lilla married again and stayed in the orient as it was called. With the outbreak of WW II she and her husband were interned in the infamous Weihsien Japanese prisoner of war camp. To save her sanity she wrote a cook book during her internment. This cookbook is now in the British Imperial War Museum. Upon returning to England after the war,Lilla and fellow colonials were not given any welcome and there was great controversey over them not getting repatriat funds. Lilla lived to be 100 years of age.
The author of this biography is her great granddaughter who was able to write this story because the family had saved copious amounts of written correspondence between many family members. The lost art of letter writting.
A truly wonderful book that exemplifies true grit! ( )