Mary Gwynn

Trained at Leith’s School of Food and Wine then joined Good Housekeeping Magazine as a cookery journalist, before going on to work on other national monthly and weekly women’s magazines. First Editor of BBC Vegetarian Good Food (1992–96), edited the M&S Magazine for 2 years, and then worked as a consultant editor for Waitrose Publications for 12 years. I was an editorial trainer with ECT at the same time, running courses on subjects as varied as Copy writing and editing, Recipe writing, Commissioning and flat planning. I still write recipes regularly for Waitrose publications, including three years spent developing and writing their recipe cards and a two-year series of monthly seasonal recipe columns in Waitrose Weekend newspaper. I have written 7 books including THE BUSY MUM’S COOKBOOK, published by Simon & Schuster in August 2011, followed in 2013 by its vegetarian sequel, THE BUSY MUM’S VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK. Two books came out simultaneously in March 2015: THE WI COOKBOOK: The First 100 Years, a collection of 100 historic recipes gathered from the WI archives telling the story of the organisation’s important role in the history of 20th century Britain, published by Ebury to celebrate the centenary of the Women’s Institute. And BACK IN TIME FOR DINNER, from Bantam Press, covering fifty years of food social history, a companion to the popular BBC2 series of the same name. In 2015 I appeared as a guest judge in the series, GREAT BRITISH MENU, on BBC2, celebrating the centenary of the Women’s Institute. I cooked for John Craven on Countryfile and appeared in the 1970’s episode of Back in Time for Dinner. I have two grown-up daughters and live on the Kent/East Sussex border. As a champion of local food producers and products, I write for local newspapers and publications and am chair of the committee which runs the award-winning Penshurst Farmers’ Market. As an identical twin I have been part of the Twins UK study for 15 years. In 2018 we took part in the Predict+ study into gut health run by geneticist Dr Tim Spector. This has had a real impact on the way I now eat and approach recipe writing.

Special subjects

Farmers markets Local seasonal food The WI and history of food in the 20th century How to eat to support a healthy gut Family friendly eating

Regular work

Contributor to Waitrose Weekend newspaper

Advisory boards / Awards

KFMA (Kent Farmers Market Association)

Commercial interests

Chair of Penshurst Farmers Market organising committee Board member of Kent Farmers Market Association

Published