Crowning glory

Jessie Sawyer and Sara Moore-Sims were busy putting the finishing touches to a new cookbook for the Country Women’s Association (CWA) when news broke of King Edward VIII’s scandalous intentions to abdicate and marry an American divorcee. The royal crisis may have seemed well outside the purview of the country women’s organisation, except that it was planning to name its publication The Coronation Cookery Book. The collection of recipes and household hints was due to be released in 1937, around the time the new King was meant to be crowned in a spectacular ceremony at Westminster Abbey.