The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

How can you not enjoy the contents of this fat, wicker luncheon-basket: ‘‘There’s cold chicken inside it… coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscress sandwichespottedmeatgingerbeer lemonadesodawater… ” It’s enough to put any picnicker into "ecstasies" especially when leaning back into soft cushions as you gently float down The River - sheer bliss!

The Enchanted Wood series, Enid Blyton

Telling the tales of Jo, Bessie, Fanny, Dick and Connie (oh those heady innocent days!) as they eat Hot Cold Goodies, Pop Biscuits and Google Buns with Silky, Moon-Face, Mr Watzisname and Saucepan Man before embarking on wild and exciting adventures in the mystical cloud-land that visits the topmost branches of the Faraway Tree.  Throughout the series our troupe of children enjoy fun and frivolity in places you can only dream about – who doesn’t want to visit the Land of Birthdays or the Land of Goodies? 

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

Towards the end of To the Lighthouse Mr Ramsey enjoys a picnic in a boat on his way to the lighthouse: “Now he was happy, eating bread and cheese with these fishermen.” While his daughter Cam peels her hard-boiled eggs and daydreams about eating their lunch in the sun imagining “they were also making for safety in a great storm after a shipwreck… telling herself a story but knowing at the same time what was the truth”.   The picnic also reveals Mr Ramsey to be “like a great Spanish gentleman… handing a flower to a lady at a window (so courteous his manner was)” while passing Cam “a gingerbread nut” – bread, cheese, boiled eggs – what a deliciously simple lunch!

Emma, Jane Austen

At Emma’s Box Hill outing Jane Austen gives us a view of how some people find the relaxed and un-structured nature of a picnic difficult to navigate.   Mr Churchill takes the lead, setting himself up as a quiz master encroaching on everyone's enjoyment of the afternoon while Emma humiliates Mrs Bates for being a bore and is horrified when Mr Knightley tells her off later! The atmosphere is of inertia, a “want of spirits, a want of union, which could not be got over”.   The reader is not privy to what the group ate but we can assume food was a factor with Mrs Elton talking about pigeon pies and cold lamb earlier.

The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas

At this Saturday night barbecue for an assortment of “family, friends and work colleagues” there is an absolute feast on offer “charred lamb chops and juicy fillet steak.  There was a stew of eggplant and tomato, drizzled with lumps of creamy melted feta.  There was black bean dahl and oven-baked spinach pilaf.  There was coleslaw and a bowl of Greek salad with cherry tomatoes and thick slices of feta; a potato and coriander salad and a bowl of juicy king prawns… pasticcio, Aisha had made a lamb in thick cardamom-infused curry, and together they had prepared two roast chickens and lemon-scented roast potatoes.  There was tzatiki and onion chutney; there was pink fragrant taramouslata and a platter of grilled red capsicum, the skins delicately removed, swimming in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.”  Friends had brought cartons of stubbies, wine and speed, music was playing “The guests lined up for plates and cutlery and the children ate seated around the coffee table.  There was hardly any conversation: everybody was too busy eating and drinking, occasionally stopping to praise... the food”.  And then a man slaps a child who is not his own having a ricochet effect on everybody present!

Enduring Love, Ian McEwan

This is a picnic that has all the hall-marks of a beautiful and enjoyable afternoon sitting in “sunlight under a turkey oak… a 1987 Daumas Gassac” to drink.  It marks a couple’s reunion after six weeks apart and Clarissa’s birthday, with fare from Carluccio’s in Covent Garden, there are olives, mixed salad and focaccia with “a great ball of mozzarella” as centre-piece. But before any of it can be enjoyed shouts are heard and Joe Rose our narrator is “running towards a catastrophe” and so begins a brilliantly turbulent and engrossing novel.