I wouldn’t say that I’m obsessed with cookery books but I spent more time deciding my top ten than I did choosing my flat. Having finally settled on a list and sent it off to the online 1,000 Cookbooks project as requested, I suffered agonies of remorse the moment it appeared online. Months later, my dreams are still haunted by Delia, Hugh and all those other old friends I reluctantly had to leave out.
Picking just ten from my enormous collection made me feel as if I was Captain von Trapp being asked to choose between his children. It couldn’t just be about usefulness: I have yet to pot a lamprey or roast a cygnet but I treasure Florence White’s Good Things in England, a collection of “traditional and regional recipes suited to modern tastes contributed by English men and women between 1399 and 1932”.
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