Robert Penn is a journalist, woodsman, lifelong cyclist and the author of several books including the Sunday Times bestseller It's All About the Bike and The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees. He lives in the Black Mountains, South Wales with his wife, three children, two spaniels, twelve bicycles and a collection of axes. He bakes his own bread in a wood-fired oven.
"A modern day Thoreau . . . Rob Penn has been hand scything wheat in the Nile Delta and growing his own heritage grains * Great British Food Magazine * Compelling, vivid . . . the cyclist and former lawyer explores his enthusiasm for sourdough bread, and forgotten ""landrace"" wheats, as he supervises their planting, harvesting and the milling of the grain that would go into his loaf . . . Slow Rise will be welcomed by the new bread geeks -- Dan Lepard * Spectator * A wide-ranging, gloriously obsessive odyssey ... a wonderful insight into the history, culture and sheer hard work taken to make this most fundamental of human foods -- Jenny Linford * author of The Missing Ingredient * Rob Penn's enthusiasm for what he calls 'the most symbolically evocative foodstuff' is so infectious and persuasive ... a pleasingly evocative tale, told with the same rich descriptions and wistful asides that Penn bakes into all of his books * Geographical * Charming, important ... a journey of discovery -- Boudicca Fox-Leonard * Telegraph * Fascinating, compelling . . . Robert Penn's engaging account encompasses every aspect of bread, from how it fuelled entire empires to which grains he could grow on his own allotment -- David Ellis * Evening Standard * People keep rediscovering the joy of bread. In truth it never went away; it was just subverted by pappy cheaper bread ... Rob Penn celebrates what we can do to reverse this culinary serfdom -- Tim Lang * author of Feeding Britain *"