What do you eat while reading Frankenstein? What wine pairs perfectly with Middlemarch? And is there a better biscuit for Agatha Christie than a digestive? As we close our Festival for 2026, and celebrate our first food programme, this gloriously indulgent event pairs literary fiction and food writing in ways you never expected - and the results are delicious.
 
Alessandra Pino and Kate Young - two brilliantly creative minds working at the intersection of food and literature - bring their appetites and their bookshelves to this playful, passionate and genuinely illuminating conversation about the relationship between eating and reading. Chaired by bookseller Dr Amy Crawford.
 
Format: Interview & Q&A
Themes: Non-Fiction, Adults, Food, History, Book Club
Access: Live Captioning
 
Alessandra Pino Books: A Gothic Cookbook: Hauntingly Delicious Recipes Inspired by 13 Classic Tales
Alessandra Pino’s research explores the intersections of food, cultural memory, the supernatural and the Gothic. She co-authored A Gothic Cookbook and writes for Haunted Magazine. She hosts A Curious Appetite with Dr Alessandra Pino, a podcast exploring the dark side of food as memory and identity. She teaches food history for the University of California (UCEAP).
 
Kate Young Books: Dinner At Mine, The Little Library Year, The Little Library Parties, The Little Library Christmas
Kate Young is a writer and cook whose award-winning Little Library Cookbooks feature food inspired by beloved works of literature. She lives in a converted mill in the English countryside. Her debut novel Experienced, is a queer romcom set in Bristol. Her latest cookbook is Dinner at Mine?
 
Dr Amy Crawford
Amy Crawford is the Events Coordinator at Waterstones Cambridge. Originally from the US, she moved to Cambridge in January 2011 to study at Anglia Ruskin University. She has worked as an Associate Lecturer in English Literature and Critical Theory, editor of an academic journal, and events manager.