In the 1970s, for a nine-year-old in Dublin, a Tea Time Express cake was a treat almost beyond imagining, a whole packet of Tayto to yourself was a rarity and the weekly forcing-down of your mum’s meatloaf an all-too-familiar ordeal. In Six at the Table, Sheila Maher tells the story of her childhood through the meals her family shared around the kitchen table (and occasionally from the boot of the car on those long journeys to reach faraway campsites) – an atmospheric celebration of family and the central role that the food lovingly prepared by her mother played in her young years.
From sliced egg, beetroot and ham salad picnics on summer days, the ice cream from Teddy’s that marked the end of the summer holidays and the warmth of the milk puddings that hurried up the passage of the winter weeks, Six at the Table is a nostalgic journey through an Irish childhood in the 1970s, when uniforms were itchy, porridge stuck to your ribs and Cidona felt like the height of sophistication.