Cheese is a deceptively simple food: take some milk (usually from a cow, sheep, buffalo - but maybe a donkey or camel), make curd, compress it, treat it and eat it. But there is so much more to this ancient foodstuff - and the cheese appreciation and culture that goes with it.

Thousands of different cheeses exist, with huge varieties in style, taste, flavour, rind, texture, colour and consistency. There are hard cheeses, blue cheeses, soft cheeses, ripened cheeses, cream cheeses - the list goes on, with subtle varieties and subcategories too.

Cheese is consumed in many different ways: melted on pizza or bread, grated onto pasta or chicken, stuffed in vegetables, layered, baked and even simply enjoyed on a plate with crackers. The Little Book of Cheese includes details of how cheese is made and its origins, an A-Z of delicious cheeses, tips and un-brie-lievable facts about the myriad different varieties, as well as amusing quotes, wise curds, and inspirational sayings all about your favourite cheeses. There’s even a generous slice of cheesy puns, because real cheese-lovers will never get feta up with them!

SAMPLE QUOTE:
‘Blessed are the cheesemakers.’ - Monty Python’s Life of Brian

SAMPLE FACT:
President Andrew Jackson once had a Cheddar cheese delivered to the White House that weighed 1,400 pounds (635kg).