Piglet, Lottie Hazell
‘utterly delectable… a gluttony of rich prose’
Lottie Hazell’s debut novel, Piglet, is utterly delectable. A gluttony of rich prose, Hazell’s research into food writing is served on a plate in her gripping literary thriller that follows aspiring cookbook editor Piglet, whose childhood nickname correlates with her appetite for the taste of perfection. Her picture-perfect life in Oxford seemingly embodies that ideal when we first meet her. Piglet is engaged to Kit, whose middle-class family is a far cry from her own humble beginnings in Derby, but their relationship threatens to deflate like a failed soufflé when Kit makes a confession just two weeks before their wedding day. Piglet must then reckon with the realisation that meticulously following a recipe doesn’t always deliver the desired results, no matter how hard she tries.
Did Piglet satiate my appetite? In so many ways it did, and in others, it left me hungry for more. What cannot be understated, however, is how ludicrously appetising the exploration of food is, particularly in its close proximation to desire, which functions as a gateway to Piglet’s own fulfilment in her career, the self-imposed expectations to appease her family, and the yearning to outshine the parameters of her small-town upbringing.
Piglet is a woman who craves perfection and, while it manifests in her cooking, it is also intrinsically linked to her relationship with her body, as well as the façade she builds around the happy marriage she is about to embark on. So much of this story is about appearances and the pressure on women to be happy with their lot and rarely, if ever, to ask for or expect more.
As the story progresses rapidly and the croquembouche is built, we await the final helping of drama. And while I felt overcome by the whirlwind of this book, I was left with hunger pangs for the cherry on the top of the cake. That said, for me, the dessert is so often overshadowed by the main course, and it is undeniable that the meat of this debut is absolutely chef’s kiss.
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