A friend very kindly took me for Pie and Mash the other day at Leytonstone’s excellent Noted Eel and Pie shop at Harrow Green (widely regarded as London’s Best Pie and Mash shop). As we settled into the wooden benches of our window booth I realised that I was last sat in the very same spot last year talking to the brilliant photographer Jake Green about the culture of Pie and Mash (Jake’s an expert, I’ve only had it about 5 times and once was the launch of Jake’s book much to the shock of Roxanne the other day who grew up on Pie and Mash and had assumed I was a connoisseur), chicken shops, nostalgia and all that.

You can watch the full video of Jake’s Pie and Mash special to launch the new edition of his wonderful photo book of London’s surviving Pie and Mash shops which also contains a piece of writing by me, The Dead Pie Shop Trail.