As someone who’s enjoyed afternoon tea on many ships throughout the years, I found a lot to like about The Art of Afternoon Tea: From the Era of Downton Abbey and the Titanic. Author Penelope Carlevato, who I met at a Titanic conference a few months ago, has inspired me to start hosting some teas of my own. I am not a cook and I lack the imagination to even put together a menu, so l’m glad to have a variety of simple sandwich recipes to offer. I also appreciated learning more about some of the history and customs around serving tea.

If there is ever an update, I suggest employing a copy editor as some of the recipes omitted details (such as oven temperature) and there were a number of typos in the commentary (including a few references to “Downtown” Abbey). Still, I am happy to have this book in my collection and I know l’ll refer to it often.