DAVID (ELIZABETH) Three autograph letters and four autograph notecards signed ('El' and 'Liz') to her old lover George Lassalle, congratulating him on his successes ('...I'm so delighted to hear that you have won the Glenfiddich cookery book prize...'), sharing news of her sister's Felicité's illness ('...My health is fine, but poor Felicité has been catastrophically ill...'), updating him on her life and work ('...I am at last working again, but of course am disastrously behind with all my projects. Chief one is the story of ices...'), mentioning his book ('...I have been reading your book properly and enjoying it enormously - not without some sharp stabs of nostalgia...'), reminiscing about her life in Greece before WWII ('...It must be fifty years since I prepared a little leg of Easter lamb and took it to the village bakery to be cooked. That was on Syros. A few days later the German Bombers came. I had a little white cat I loved, and the figs on the tree in my very little garden were just beginning to ripen...'), telling him about a cafe in Notting Hill ('...run by a couple from Teheran... good rice, soups, bread from a tandur oven...the best halva in town was also to be found there...'), 11 pages, one envelope, light toning, old folds and creases, 24 Halsey Street, London, 15 May 1977 to 12 October 1991; with Elizabeth David's books An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, 1984 and English Bread and Yeast Cookery, 1977, both inscribed to George Lassalle ('with my love') (small group) Footnotes: 'I RATHER FANCY THAT RICE WITH ALMONDS AND DATES...': A SMALL GROUP OF AUTOGRAPH LETTERS AND CARDS FROM ELIZABETH DAVID TO HER OLD FLAME GEORGE LASSALLE. A group of letters that testifies the continued friendship between Elizabeth David and George Lassalle, a former lover from her Cairo years. In November 1946 they travelled to Ross-on-Wye for a short break but were stranded by severe weather in a drab hotel, where David was frustrated by the poor food. Encouraged by Lassalle, she began to set down her thoughts on paper, and during the bitter winter of 1946-1947 started writing Mediterranean Food, drawing on the culinary experiences she had accumulated during her years of wartime travel. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing