Keeping House with Elizabeth Craig

Craig, Elizabeth & 'Peter the Planter'. Keeping House with Elizabeth Craig . J Lyons & Co: London, 1938. 8vo (165x105mm) sage green printed stiff card wrappers, 173,[3]pp. VG-/- wrappers lightly soiled; a few folded cnrs

CRAIG, Elizabeth [Elizabeth Josephine, MBE (1893-1980)] and 'Peter the Planter'.

Keeping House with Elizabeth Craig.

London : J Lyons & Co, 1938. Printed by Purnell and Sons Ltd, Paulton and London.

Octavo (165x105mm) sage green blindstamped, printed stiff card wrappers, 173,[3]pp. Wrappers lightly soiled, edges faded; a few folded corners; sporadic faint foxing.

Not to be confused with Keeping House with Elizabeth Craig, published by Collins in London in 1936, this is a small book containing the household hints given by Elizabeth Craig during her radio programme "Keeping House with Elizabeth Craig" which, presented by "Peter the Planter" on behalf of Lyons Green Label Tea, aired on Radio Luxembourg three times a week during 1938.  The hints are gathered into three chapters: "Round and About the House", "Beauty, Health and Diet", and by far the largest "Cookery".  The hints are written in a distinctly chatty style, perhaps directly transcribed from the broadcast.

Lyons & Co was founded in 1904.  By the interwar period, it was Britain's largest tea producer.  Green label was its most popular brand.  Radio Luxembourg was the largest of a number of European radio stations that began broadcasting sponsored English language programs for the British market in the 1930s.  At this time commercial radio was prohibited in Britain.  Elizabeth Craig was a Scottish home economist, journalist and prolific cookery author.  A household name in Britain from the 1920s to the 1980s, Craig wrote over 70 books on cookery, household management and related subjects.   'Peter the Planter' was a brand icon for Lyons tea used in advertising in all media to promote Green Label Tea during the 1930s with the smiling image of a man in a pith helmet.

A scarce ephemeral item illustrating the relationship between successful 'brand' authors, commercial (pirate) radio and branded food products in Britain in the interwar period.  A lovely copy.

§  OCLC records only one copy, National Library of Scotland