The Theory and Practice of Lunch

Keith Waterhouse was one of Britain’s most successful writers. Newspaper columnist, novelist, playwright and screenwriter, he was a key figure on the media scene in mid-century London – and much of his networking was conducted over lunch.

Starting out on The Daily Mirror at the age of twenty-three, Waterhouse took to that most important Fleet Street tradition – lunch – like a duck to water. So much so that in time he wrote his own homage to the joys, and the pitfalls, of this most agreeable midday event.

When is a lunch a working lunch, and when might it be a prelude to an afternoon tryst? Which kind of restaurant is appropriate for these different occasions? Should you go to a ‘see and be seen’ establishment, or opt for discretion? The Theory and Practice of Lunch was originally published in 1974, so of course most of the hotspots Waterhouse name checks are long gone. But, though food fads and restaurants come and go, some things never change. Will your waiter try and seat you at the worst table, over by the loos? Will he/she bring your companion’s starter and then yours ten minutes later? How much, if any, alcohol should be consumed?

If anyone earned the epithet ‘a legend in his own lunchtime’ it was Keith Waterhouse, who listed ‘lunch’ as his only hobby in his Who’s Who entry. This warm, witty and hilarious guide to his favourite pastime is a genuine delight and a classic of food writing, littered with bon mots to delight the modern luncher.

‘Friendship and lunch went together. It is difficult to know which of the two commitments he thought the more important. Perhaps a clue lies in the fact that it was The Theory and Practice of Lunch about which he wrote a book’ – Roy Hattersley, The Guardian