In Britain, we have always had an awkward relationship with food. We've been told for so long that we are terrible cooks and yet according to a 2012 YouGov survey, our traditional food and drink are more important than the monarchy and at least as significant as our landscape and national monuments in defining a collective notion of who we are. Taking nine archetypically British dishes - pie and peas, the cheese sandwich, fish and chips, spag bol, Devonshire cream tea, curry, the full English, the Sunday roast and a crumble with custard - and examining them in their perfect context, Pete Brown reveals just how fundamental food is to our sense of identity.