BREAD & CHOCOLATE 
     Philippa Gregory  
   HarperCollins Publishers, London, 1999 First Edition 
   
 
  Condition: Good. Hardcover with dust jacket, minor edge wear to upper margin; interior light toned pages. Jacket retains its deep magenta and rose tones with minimal surface wear.
    About the Book 
   In Bread & Chocolate, acclaimed novelist Philippa Gregory offers a collection of contemporary short fiction rich, dark, and sensual that explores the delicate intersections of desire, deception, and self-awareness. Known for her historical works, Gregory here turns her sharp psychological insight to modern lives: a monk tempted by a flamboyant TV chef; a minimalist home undone by a surprise visitor; husbands and wives drawn into subtle games of betrayal and revelation. 
  Each story is a self-contained meditation on temptation, transformation, and the private negotiations between love and morality. The tone shifts from wry to tender, always threaded with the authors characteristic empathy and wit. The collections title, Bread & Chocolate, evokes the tension between nourishment and indulgence the bodys hungers mirrored in the complexities of the heart.
    About the Author 
     Philippa Gregory (b. 1954) is a British novelist, historian, and broadcaster. She earned her Ph.D. in eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh and is best known for her historical novels such as The Other Boleyn Girl and A Respectable Trade. Her works have been adapted for television and film, though Bread & Chocolate stands apart as an exploration of the modern moral landscape, revealing the same intelligence and sensitivity she brings to her historical characters.