Food as indulgence, certainly, but also food as a taboo, a cruelty, a desperate need, a failed sex aid, and a means of making a living. Including Graham Swift on the life and death of a butcher, J. M. Coetzee’s attempt at vegetarianism in Texas, Giles Foden at Idi Amin’s dinner table, and Sean French on the delights of Icelandic cuisine (including roast puffin and whale sushi). Plus: Georges Perec, Romesh Gunesekera, John Lanchester, Jane Rogers, Margaret Visser and Joan Smith.