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Hello and welcome to Table Talk, the Spectators Food and Drink podcast.

I'm Olivia Potts and today we are delighted to be joined by John Paul Flintoff.

John Paul is a journalist, a writer and an artist.

His books include Comp, A Survivor Story, So Own, and most recently, Psalms for the City,

original poetry inspired by the places we call home.

John Paul, welcome to Table Talk.

Thank you very much for having me.

So we'll start where we always do at the beginning and ask you, what are your earliest memories of food?

Ah, I have this, it's so unformed, but I think I remember being very jealous of my younger

brother for having Farley's Rusks, which I was no longer having. So I think that's probably

the earliest thing I remember, but the most abiding long-term childhood, early childhood memory is of doing gymnastics

at my primary school and always finding little peas on the floor. Wherever we were, there was

always a pea nearby. And it put me off the peas, even though it didn't make any sense. They could

have been wonderful on the plate and then terrible on the floor, but seeing them on the floor

made me not like them on the plate.

Please say that the gymnastics took place in the dining hall and that there was a link there.

There was a link, yeah. The tables were put away and then we did gym.

Right. Okay. I mean, that's a happier ending to the story, but still disconcerting.

And apart from envy of Rusks, what was food like at home?

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