This year's cookery books are simple and Green (lots of wild food), with recipes for real cooks, rather than chef's eye-candy. Here's my choice in order of approval.
The Cook's Book of Ingredients (Dorling Kindersley, £30) Exhaustive list of up-to-date ingredients with added recipes, clearly photographed and laid out in the way DK does best, from the obvious-potatoes-to the obscure-rice paddy herb. Ideal, not only for beginners, but also for sophisticated cooks.
What to Cook and How to Cook It Jane Hornby (Phaidon, £24.95) More than 400 pages with step-by-step recipes, often taking more than four pages each. They range from a sandwich to surprisingly complex dishes such as coq au vin and curries. The emphasis is on student-type food, although it would suit any beginner.
How I Cook Skye Gyngell (Quadrille, £25) Chef Gyngell retains her common-sense approach to luscious food that doesn't need a laboratory. Her added tips are worth the price alone.
Recipes and Ramblings Elisabeth Luard (Oldie, £14.99) A book collected from her Oldie columns and outstandingly illustrated by herself. Mrs Luard is a veteran and award-winning cookery writer who feels no need to show off. A tasty present.
Kitchen Garden Companion Stephanie Alexander (Quadrille, £30) This writer got into vegetable gardening helping Australian primary-school children to grow their own. Excellent gardening advice (with tips for children) and allied recipes makes this perfect for country mothers, but why it comes with a loose fabric cover like a sofa is beyond me-take it straight off.
The Home Cookbook Monty and Sarah Don (Bloomsbury, £25) And now a book from gardeners turned cooks. Good home recipes (chicken pie, toad-in-the-hole, crumbles), with not too much emphasis on vegetables. This is about living in the country with a garden, a few hens, good food shops and farmer's markets.
Food from Plenty Diana Henry (Mitchell Beazley, £25) A celebration of good food with-out planet-killer guilt trips. Food, she says, is about giving pleasure without extravagance. As always with this writer, an inspiring and beautiful book.
Food From Many Greek Kitchens Tessa Kiros (Murdoch, £25) Greece (arguably) doesn't have a great cuisine and this book is more enjoyable for its evocative scenes of Greek life. If you long for Homer's wine-dark sea, this volume is for you (apart from the horrid italic type printed in sickly turquoise).
And now for something completely different The Flavour Thesaurus NIki Segnit (Bloomsbury £18.99) The most innovative cookbook of the year. Niki Segnit explores what goes with what-chocolate with cauliflower, rosemary with rhubarb-with wit, charm and travellers' tales. Hundreds of ideas, -a brilliant newcomer.
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A well-connected rural playground with 23 acres on the edge of the South Downs National ParkOld House Farm is an impressive family home with a wealth of amenities that would inspire any rural passion.
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The UK gets its first ‘European stork village’ — and it's in West SussexAlthough the mortality rate among white storks can be up to 90%, the future looks rosy for breeding pairs in southern England.
