“Gluttons get a bad rap. They are considered unbridled, excessive, perverse. One thinks of Augustus Gloop touring Willy Wonka’s factory, “scooping hot melted chocolate into his mouth as fast as he could”. Or of Elvis Presley, taking his private jet from Memphis to Denver so he could eat a loaf of bread filled with peanut butter, jelly and a pound of fried bacon. The dissolute emperor Elagabalus comes to mind as well, feasting on flamingo brains and peacock tongues, peppering his fish and truffles with pearls. The world likes to see such appetites punished with a ride up a magic tube, an insurrection or, at the very least, indigestion.”

Times Literary Supplement, December 2022