Michael Finnerty – författare

‘A wonderful book.' Cathy Rentzenbrink ‘A remarkable tale’ The Spectator 'Finnerty is genuinely funny, but curious and tender, too.' David Ellis, London Standard Restaurant Critic and Going Out Editor A soul-lifting tale of finding a new life in a passion, a glorious insight into the community of London's oldest food market, an exploration of the senses the modern world forgets to celebrate – taste, touch, smell… and the most enjoyable and fascinating education on all things cheese.A giant wheel of Comté – a cheese full of delight, a mosaic of flavour – can sometimes become flat. Despite all that’s gone into making it and caring for it, its complexity mysteriously vanishes, its spark dies. Cheesemongers know that. That’s why they regularly test the cheeses: they insert a cheese iron deep into the wheel and extract a sample from its core. Sometimes they can cure it and sometimes they can’t.A highly successful BBC and Guardian Journalist, somehow Michael Finnerty's life had become flat. His psychological cheese iron told him he needed to make a change, and he becomes convinced his salvation lies in cheese. Michael becomes an apprentice cheesemonger at Borough Market, and is plunged into a world of intense physicality, extraordinary knowledge, and total geeky passion. From learning the cheese's personal nighttime riders – Castillon Frais needs to sit in its box underneath some waxed paper but its box needs to be kept in a plastic sheath, Comté sits unwrapped in a cool cupboard, and has a quick saline bath before bed – to learning intricate ways to wrap their different shapes; from being able to taste nuances between the cheeses, to slicing fingers, bruising toes, getting allergic reactions, and the simple dog-tiredness of being on your feet from the crack of dawn till night, Michael's new job is more demanding than he could ever have imagined – and he loves it. Then when Borough Market is subjected to a terrifying attack, Michael realises through cheese, he has found something even more powerful – community.

‘A wonderful book.' Cathy Rentzenbrink ‘A remarkable tale’ The Spectator A giant wheel of Comté – a cheese full of delight, a mosaic of flavour – can sometimes become flat. Despite all that’s gone into making it and caring for it, its complexity mysteriously vanishes, its spark dies. Cheesemongers know that. That’s why they regularly test the cheeses: they insert a cheese iron deep into the wheel and extract a sample from its core. Sometimes they can cure it and sometimes they can’t.A highly successful BBC and Guardian Journalist, somehow Michael Finnerty's life had become flat. His psychological cheese iron told him he needed to make a change, and he becomes convinced his salvation lies in cheese. Michael becomes an apprentice cheesemonger at Borough Market, and is plunged into a world of intense physicality, extraordinary knowledge, and total geeky passion. From learning the cheese's personal nighttime riders – Castillon Frais needs to sit in its box underneath some waxed paper but its box needs to be kept in a plastic sheath, Comté sits unwrapped in a cool cupboard, and has a quick saline bath before bed – to learning intricate ways to wrap their different shapes; from being able to taste nuances between the cheeses, to slicing fingers, bruising toes, getting allergic reactions, and the simple dog-tiredness of being on your feet from the crack of dawn till night, Michael's new job is more demanding than he could ever have imagined – and he loves it. Then when Borough Market is subjected to a terrifying attack, Michael realises through cheese, he has found something even more powerful – community.

A quest for passion and community meets deep knowledge and learning in Michael Finnerty’s The Cheese Cure. A renowned journalist and radio presenter, Finnerty found something deeply lacking in the flavour of his life. What followed was a life-changing sabbatical in the historical halls of Borough Market filled with cheese-borne wisdom, eccentric characters, and a tale as gripping as it is heartfelt.Convinced that salvation lay in the rich world of cheese, Finnerty reconsiders his successful career with the CBC after training as an apprentice cheesemonger in London. Immediately immersed into a completely unexpected universe, his love for cheese went even further than his unimaginably growing knowledge. From learning each cheese’s history, complexities, and preferences – Castillon Frais must sit in its box underneath some waxed paper, while Comté often needs a quick saline bath before bed – and believing that cheeses are infused with a living spirit, to injuries, allergies, and physical exhaustion, he experienced it all. And when a devastating attack sent people fleeing Borough Market, Finnerty realized that in cheese he had found something even more important – his community. A thriving mosaic of eclectic stories, passion, know-how, and serendipity, The Cheese Cure depicts a life lived to the fullest.