A few days spent near Camarthen has inspired a week of Welsh posts looking at women who have contributed to the history and culture of south and west Wales, starting with Lady Margaret Rhondda (1883-1958) (seen here in a 1931 portrait by Alice Mary Burton) who used her money, position, and influence to campaign for women's rights and social reform. In 1920 she founded Time and Tide,and was an important early supporter of Winifred Holtby who became a director of the feminist weekly.

The most famous cookery book-cum-memoir is probably the eponymous Alice B Toklas Cook Book (1954). It is one of the best-selling cookbooks of all time, but far from being a Delia Smith or a Mrs Beeton, it is more a work of literary modernism. It includes stories about her relationship with Gertrude Stein, and is perhaps best known for the inclusion of a recipe for Haschich [sic] Fudge which was originally excised from the American edition, but not the English. Hash brownies alone ensured Alice B Toklas became an icon of 1960s counterculture.

How to Cook a Wolf by the American food writer M.F.K. FIsher (1908-92) was published in 1942 at a time of privation, yet urges the reader to eat to live "with grace and gusto" by finding the best ways to exist in the best possible way for the least amount of money. As Sarah Ditum says, "The wolf of the title is the one at the door". Like all great cookery books, it has largely outlived its function as a practical how-to guide, and has become a classic piece of food writing and a reminder to enjoy one's "own good fortune".

The Pauper's Cookbook came out in 1971, became an influential bestseller, and is still in print (in revised form). Jocasta Innes (1934-2013) "made a long career out of a talent for making do, making over, and making a home in adversity" and wrote dozens of domestic manuals. In this book she captures the spirit of dingy bedsits and rented rooms - in the same way Margaret Drabble and Lynne Reid Banks did in fiction. As Debora Robertson says, she gave tasty, affordable recipes based on a budget of two shillings and sixpence per meal per person for the "hurried, harried and skint". 

Is is twenty-five years since the publication of How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson, a book which made a huge impact as much for the quality of the writing and recipes as for the ironic title which was widely and often wilfully misunderstood. Likewise the endpapers (above). So this week on the Post we have famous cookery books which are known for much more than their recipes. 

The Hepworth Wakefield, designed by David Chipperfield, opened in 2011 to house Wakefield's art collection and to provide a legacy for Barbara Hepworth in her home town. As well as a fascinating range of her works, maquettes, and studio materials and objects, the gallery has a programme of excellent exhibitions. There is also a beautiful garden by Tom Stuart-Smith (free to all, open daily) with incredible tulips in the spring.