The real Isabella Beeton was quite different, though, and her book was not the cumulation of years of domestic experience but a practical bit of market exploitation by a canny young woman and her publisher husband.

Isabella Mayson married Samuel Beeton in July 1856. She was 20, daughter of a drapery merchant; he was 25, and had lately set himself up as a publisher of books (Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an early success) and magazines. The stalwart in his magazine-publishing stable was The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine, a successful monthly catering for a much broader class of woman reader than the more exclusive Lady’s Magazine and others of that ilk. Bella and Sam had not been long married when the EDM’s cookery writer left and the young bride found herself stepping in to the breach. That she knew nothing about cooking was no obstacle – neither she nor her husband seemed to think it was, at least – since after all there were so many other popular recipe books, recent and classic, where she could find material to re-use.

The Beeton household was not grand and well-staffed; it was a pleasant semi- in Pinner, north London, with a single maid-of-all-work; but these were in fact just the class of households that might buy a new kind of recipe book – one with basic, no-nonsense recipes, all straight-forward enough, and with tips on how to do things thriftily; but at the same time an indication that this might also be the sort of book that posher people might use (tips on how best to manage your butler…) – so it’s usefully down-to-earth, but aspirational too. As the lady of the house you can pretend that it’s really to be used by your cook and housekeeper, though the reality is you probably keep the house and do much of the cooking yourself. The Beetons knew this aspiring lower-middle class well, and judged the market very shrewdly indeed.

Compiling the book

Bella would spend two years, from autumn 1857, writing and compiling the best part of Beeton’s Book of Household Management – that is, writing little bits of her own, but mainly appropriating recipes from other favourite sources. And in November 1859, the first part was published. For the first incarnation of the BOHM was not as a great definitive, Bible-like tome, but a series of 48-page monthly parts. (To save typesetting costs, the parts were set exactly as they’d appear in the completed volume, meaning that the first published part corresponded exactly to pages 1-48 of the future book, the next part pages 49-96, regardless of the fact that this meant that you sometimes bought a monthly instalment whose last page left you dangling mid-recipe…)

The final part – the 24th - appeared in 1861. And then (just like 21st-century publishing) the spin-offs began – after the partwork the massive single-volume edition, the slightly cheaper version, the real bargain edition without pictures (for the staff), and so on. The hungry market had room for all of these, and they sold in very healthy numbers.

But the publication of the book was really only the start of the story.

Tragic end

Isabella Beeton would die of puerperal fever (caused by infection following childbirth) in 1865, at the age of 28, and buried at Norwood Cemetery; but the book was barely beginning its absolute conquest of the nation’s pantry shelves. Sam would bring out new editions regularly, updated with new recipes, and changed to suit the tastes of the times; and after his death in 1877, others would continue the job for him. The title would become Mrs Beeton’s Book Of Household Management, and would for several decades appear with Mrs B’s original preface (one is meant to assume that she’s still alive, presumably). So even long after her death, Isabella Beeton remained – remains – the book’s presiding spirit (offering useful tips on saving money in the lean years after the Great War…).

Though Isabella died young, her brand – as that fictional 55-year-old, the matronly, domestic and bustling "Mrs Beeton" – is impressively strong, iconic – and still publishing today.