In 1961, Wilson was appointed an Assistant Librarian in the
Brotherton Library at the
University of Leeds. She was subject librarian for classics, archaeology, and ancient history, to which she subsequently added art and music. In the mid-1960s she catalogued the John Preston collection of historic cookery books (at the time a recent gift to the Library), which led to her developing an interest in food history.[1] She published the wide-ranging Food and Drink in Britain in 1973, and her more specialised The Book of
Marmalade: its antecedents, its history and its rôle in the world today won the 1984
Diagram Prize for the oddest title of the year at the
Frankfurt Book Fair. In 2006 she published Water of Life: a history of wine-distilling and spirits; 500 BC - AD 2000.[2] She edited several volumes of the proceedings of the Leeds Symposium on Food History and Tradition.
1985: The Book of Marmalade: its antecedents, its history and its rôle in the world today, together with a collection of recipes for marmalades & marmalade cookery. London: Constable
ISBN0-09-465670-3
2006: Water of Life: a history of wine-distilling and spirits from 500 BC - AD 2000. Totnes: Prospect Books
ISBN1-903018-46-3
As editor
1991: "Banquetting stuffe": the fare and social background of the Tudor and Stuart banquet (Proceedings of the 1st Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions). Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP
ISBN0-7486-0103-1
1991: The Appetite and the Eye: visual aspects of food and its presentation within their historic context (Proceedings of the 2nd Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions). Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP
ISBN0-7486-0101-5
1991: Traditional Food East and West of the Pennines (Proceedings of the 3rd Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions), Edinburgh UP, 1991
ISBN0-7486-0118-X
1991: Waste Not, Want Not: food preservation from early times to the present day. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP
ISBN0-7486-0119-8
1993: "Liquid Nourishment": potable foods and stimulating drinks (Proceedings of the 5th Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions). Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP
ISBN0-7486-0424-3
1993: Food for the community : special diets for special groups (Proceedings of the 6th Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions). Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP
ISBN0-7486-0431-6
1993: Traditional Country House Cooking. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN0-297-83137-2
1994: Luncheon, Nuncheon and Other Meals: eating with the Victorians. Stroud: Sutton
ISBN0-7509-0528-X
2004: Eating with the Victorians. Stroud: Sutton (Previous ed. published as: Luncheon, nuncheon and other meals, 1994.)
1998: The Country House Kitchen Garden, 1600-1950: how produce was grown and how it was used (Based on papers from the 10th Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions). Stroud: Sutton
ISBN0-7509-1423-8
References
^"The Book of Marmalade". University of Pennsylvania Press. Philadelphia. Retrieved 14 May 2009.