The English Roses admonishing her older provocative self. Madonna's narration was described by Ginny Dougary as "bossy". She also found parallels with the singer's childhood in "The English Roses". "Slate"s Polly Shulman found the book to be "charmless, didactic" and egoistic since she felt it revolved around Madonna and her daughter. Shulman added that ""The English Roses" is a dull little thing, though not incompetent. Madonna does understand the basic structure of storytelling—perhaps too well", with multiple cliches present while making the titular characters "so passive that they might as well be good." David Kipen of the "San Francisco Chronicle" humorously said that
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