This brief yet elegantly designed book reprints Houlihan's 1988 history of the Lancashire tripe trade, together with Roy Shipperbottom's essay on the "Decline of Tripe" and a 1987 piece by Lynda Brown on "Elder: 'A Good Udder to Dinner'" (the quote is from Pepys). Houlihan was inspired by a conversation with a neighbour: "When I were a girl, mi mother kept a trip shop up Halliwell, an that's summat y'never see these days." In 1906, Manchester had 260 tripe shops. By 1994 there were none. Tripe is the first or second stomach of a ruminant, particularly an ox. Athenaeus and Homer praised tripe and William the Conqueror was partial to it. The fast food of its day, this "cheap and nourishing" food has played an important part in "making the north and midlands the workshops of Britain". Houlihan's study is a gem, bringing together interviews with those who remember the tripe trade ("Don't talk tripe  Eat it!" was one firm's slogan), old adverts and photos, as well as recipes, including the intriguingly named Tripe Wiggle.