English cookery has developed over many centuries since at least the time of "The Forme of Cury", written in the Middle Ages around 1390 in the reign of King Richard II. The book offers imaginative and sophisticated recipes, with spicy sweet and sour sauces thickened with bread or quantities of almonds boiled, peeled, dried and ground, and often served in pastry. Foods such as gingerbread are described. It was not at all, emphasises Clarissa Dickson Wright in her "A History of English Food", a matter of large lumps of roast meat at every meal as imagined in Hollywood films.