Fair Shares for All: A Memoir of Family and Food

A reviewer

I am relieved to see such a well-crafted memoir such as this appear on the market. 'Fare Shares for All' is a brutally honest, witty, and delicious memoir. Expertly crafted, I love how this author places two important subjects, food and war, side by side: 'Blank-faced pickled onions were drowning in vinegar. Skewered at the midriff, sqadrons of cocktail sausages were lined up like fatalities on stretchers. Bulking wedges of Cheddar sat at the back in the shadows of sandwiched ham, triangulations of pork and quashed bread that were shedding meltdown butter and a hint of sty.' Later, Haney's comic timing is impeccable: 'Mum never minced her words,' said Ray. 'Remember that really bad afternoon, Den? Daylight raid. September 1940. Windows blown out. Front door gone. Half the roof off. And what does she say? 'I'm not moving for that bastard Hitler. They'll never carry me out.' Yet Haney's unsentimental eye and ear for comedy is carefully measured, never coming off as cold, or snobbish. He has created a moving paean to his family haunted by class struggle and war.