The English Roses across the United States. In the United Kingdom, "The English Roses" sold 8,270 copies according to BookScan and was ranked number 17 on the top-selling list. It was the second best-selling children's book, with 220 fewer sales than author J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Worldwide the book went on to sell a million copies by April 2005. "The English Roses" received moderate reviews after its release. Ayelet Waldman from "Tablet" questioned whether Rabbi Baal Shem Tov, whose morals were the inspiration behind Madonna's writing endeavors, did really ask "to be nice to pretty girls
The English Bread Book considered the book "excellent, and we trust to be popular". Readers of the book, the reviewer thought, will become possessed of a store of useful knowledge, as well as scientific as practical, upon a question which is essentially that of every man, woman and child in the wide universe". In her work, "English Bread and Yeast Cookery", Elizabeth David writes that "The English Bread Book" heavily influenced and informed her work, and she owes Acton a debt for it. The food writer Elizabeth Ray observes that the book was less successful than "Modern Cookery", and was only reprinted in 1990.