Priya Desai

Priya Desai grew up in a house in Peckham where feeding people was the primary domestic activity. Her mother's approach to hospitality was matter-of-fact - you made more than you needed, you left the door open, you didn't make a fuss about presentation. The table was always slightly chaotic and the food was always excellent.

Priya has spent most of her adult life trying to understand that approach intellectually - what it means to create a home that welcomes people rather than impresses them, and how season shapes both what you make and how you make space for others.

Her writing on seasonal living is rooted in the idea that the house has a rhythm that runs underneath whatever decor is in it - the way light changes across a year, the way appetite changes, the way you want to use your living room differently in November than in July. She is interested in the practical consequences of this: what to cook, how to set a table, when to light candles, how to think about warmth and light as design decisions rather than utility questions.

Priya has written for Waitrose Weekend, Stylist, and various food publications. She lives in a ground-floor flat in Herne Hill with a small garden that she uses for about six months of the year and thinks about constantly for the other six.