Cookery scrapbooks

The collection comprises a series of cookery scrapbooks and a guest book compiled by Ann Sargent while cooking for her family and friends over several decades.

The scrapbooks are full of cuttings containing recipes and cookery advice from magazines and newspapers. Some cuttings are from articles on cookery and recipes, others are from advertisements. Ann also snipped recipes out from the cardboard packaging of food. These recipes give the manufacturers' recommendations of how to use products such as flour, margarine and cheese.

Ann had wide-ranging culinary interests as the cuttings cover topics such as preparing game and fish and also vegetarian dishes. She also cooked French, Spanish and Ghanian food.

The scrapbooks themselves are also of interest. They were purchased from W. H. Smith and the cover designs illustrate cultural developments.

The guest book is dated from 1984-2013. In it Ann has recorded the names of her guests and menu plans for particular dates.

The scrapbooks are not strictly chronological.

Patricia Ann Sargent, known as Ann, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on 7th April 1941, whilst her mother was evacuated from Birmingham during the Second World War.

Ann was brought up in Birmingham. Although her mother was a good cook and made lots of traditional regional Black Country dishes, Ann was not that interested in cooking in her early years. She attended King Edward's High School for Girls and studied A level languages. Ann's father would not allow her to apply for university, so she went straight to work moving to Cheltenham 1959 to work at GCHQ.

Ann married in 1962, which is when she became interested in cooking and started collecting recipes from magazines and newspapers. She would regularly cook 4 course evening meals from her recipe collection. After her daughter was born in 1965, she left work and became a housewife. The family moved to Hong Kong from 1967-9. Ann returned to the UK in 1969 after she divorced and due to a change in circumstances and finances was unable to cook the elaborate meals she did when she was married.

The remainder of her career she worked as a medical laboratory scientist in the haematology department of several hospitals in Birmingham. Over the following years she became interested in ethnic culture and cuisine, particularly Spanish and Ghanaian food. She spent several holidays in the Alpujarras region of Spain, Cuba and Chile.

In the 1970s on wards she hosted lots of dinner parties and catered for bigger events including Birmingham Friends of the Earth functions. Many of these events and recipes were documented in a guest book from 1984-2013.

Ann was fortunate to attend an event to see Claudia Roden at the Jewish Museum in London in a food panel discussion. When her friend won a competition with the prize being lunch cooked by Nigel Slater in his own home, she went as her guest. Both of these writers were among her favourite cooks.

Due to ill health Ann moved to London in 2017 to be closer to her daughter and finds it difficult to cook the ambitious meals she used to. The neatly cut out and orderly record is a reflection of Ann's personality.

With thanks to Samantha Sargent, Ann's daughter, for this biography.

This collection is fully accessible and not subject to restrictions under the Data Protection Act

Compiled by Ann Sargent and donated to Special Collections by Ann and Samantha Sargent in 2017.

Material in this collection is in copyright. Photocopies or digital images can only be supplied by the Library for research or private study within the terms of copyright legislation. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain the copyright holder's permission to reproduce for any other purpose. Guidance is available on tracing copyright status and ownership.