This is a cook book that my mum had when we were growing up and I snaffled it when I got married; I am currently copying the ingredients into an app for easy reference. There are four recipes to a double page, each with a large photo of the completed dish and a 'quick tip' with suggestions. The recipes are not too complicated (being aimed at the 1970s busy working woman) and are easy to follow.

There are three contributors to the book who each have chapters covering different types of foods (Mary Berry has 'main meals to cook ahead' and 'favourite family cakes', for instance). While Mary Berry tends to stick to traditional foods (roasts, stews and so on) Ann Boyd uses ready-to-go ingredients such as tinned blackcurrant pie filling; her recipes are more simplistic but have dated somewhat especially as the ingredients lists occasionally use what seem to be branded ingredients which are now unfamiliar.

The recipes are well presented and easy to follow. However, while some are timeless, others have not dated well. However, maybe this is the original book to the modern Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook series with 200 recipes in each book?

3*** July 2020 ( )

Pragmatic, simple domestic cookery that epitomises the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although deeply unfashionable as I write, there is a coherence of style to the dishes here as they embrace the convenience of canned foods at a time before microwaves and even before freezers were commonplace. All 336 recipes are illustrated with an unfussy colour photograph. ( )