The English Roses were acquired by Penguin Group UK. Puffin Books, Penguin's children's imprint, published the books. The joint press release announcing the deal explained that each story book would involve Madonna working with a different illustrator. Madonna confirmed that all profits from sales of the book were to be donated to charity. She partnered with Amazon and recorded an exclusive audio message about the book for Amazon's customers. The message was available from September 3 and was the first opportunity for customers to hear the singer talking about "The English Roses". The book was not available to the press and media in
The English Bread Book making in France, Germany and Belgium, and the book contains recipes for German pumpernickel, French baguettes, Italian polenta bread, Turkish rolls and Indian breads. The following list refers to the 1857 edition. The unknown reviewer for "The Literary Gazette" wrote a favourable review of "The English Bread Book", which was also copied in full in "The Manchester Guardian". The reviewer called Acton a "clever author", and praised the inclusion of "the whole philosophy and practice, as well as the history of the subject of bread-making, in its plain and fancy forms". In a review in "The Glasgow Herald", the critic