''The queen of food historians'' LUCY WORSLEY''Annie Gray leads the pack'' JAY RAYNERGoogle ''the future of the high street'' and you''ll be confronted by opinion pieces debating the ethics ofvegan cafés, spiralling economic projections and the rush to online shopping. But what about the history of the high street?Historian Annie Gray walks us down the road and through the ages - from the dawn of the high street in medieval England to what we see today. Bustling with historical detail, and colourful vignettes, we visit everything from apothecaries and penny bazaars to the birth of Marks and Spencer and the original toyshops, where curiosities were sold for adults rather than children.A surprising and colourful work of social history, The Bookshop, the Draper, the Candlestick Maker tells the story of how we shopped and lived in days gone by in one of Britain''s most loved but ever-changing public spaces - and what the future may bring.

Annie Gray is a historian, cook, broadcaster and writer specialising in the history of food and dining in Britain from around 1600 to the present day. She is the author of Victory in the Kitchen and The Greedy Queen, among a number of other titles. An honorary research associate at the University of York and a Fellow of the Royal History Society, she has presented TV history documentaries including Victorian Bakers and The Sweetmakers, and is the resident food historian on BBC Radio 4's The Kitchen Cabinet. She lives in East Anglia.