Neil’s guest today is historian and friend of the show EmmaKay. Today we talk about Emma’s new book A History of Herbalism: Cook, Cure& Conjure which was published in June 2022.We talk about the importance of herbs in medicine, magic andfood, and how these things were interconnected, the four humours, Anglo-Saxonmedical texts, the double standards surrounding men and women who practisedmagic and medicine, two female pioneers of botany and herbalism, and narcoticgarden vegetables. Emma’s book is published by Pen &Sword History: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-History-of-Herbalism-Hardback/p/21395 Follow Emma on twitter @museumofkitchenand Insta @emma_kay_author. Her website is www.museumofkitchenalia.com.  Things mentioned in today’s episode:Marianne North’s edited biography: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Recollections_of_a_Happy_Life/fdnVAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 Elizabeth Blackwell’s A CuriousHerbal: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Curious_Herbal_Containing_Five_Hundred/ogHjFWeztJAC?hl=en&gbpv=0  Neil’s book A Dark History ofSugar is available now from all bookshops as well as from the publisher Pen& Sword: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Sugar-Hardback/p/20481  If you want to buy a signed copydirectly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate ifoutside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below). Also, don’t forget if you have any questionsor queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a questionabout the history of British food please email me atneil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagramdr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. If you like my blog posts and podcastepisodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffeeor a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details. Mentioned in this episode:Fruit Pig are currently sponsoring The British Food History PodcastVisit fruitpig.co.uk for more details of their products and journey, and to access their shop. Grant and Matthew are very kindly giving listeners to the BFHP a unique special offer: 10% off your order until the end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp