Virtually every corner of the British Isles yields superb products and produce - fine things to eat and drink. Food and drink in Britain varies considerably from region to region and county to county.

North of Hadrian's Wall, it is a reflection of a hardy and resilient land and people. Ireland likewise retains its own solitary culinary traditions, which have emerged intact after centuries of English provincial domination. In Wales, traditional foods, like the Welsh language itself, have been guarded and passed down by word of mouth. In the shires, pork pies and other portable fare became popular as a sustaining food while hunting, and in Cornwall, the humble pasty was the workers' lunch, easily carried down the damp tin mines.

Certain localities, it will be seen, are inextricably linked with certain foods. Some have been adopted nationally, such as Yorkshire pudding, but others remain very much tied to a single area, indeed to a single village. For example, Banbury cakes remain much in evidence in this small market town but are not widely available outside it.