Wonderful feeling ... Stephanie Alexander. Photo: Mark Chew
Seven Little Australians - Ethel Turner
This book and its sequel, The Family at Misrule, awoke my interest in an earlier Australia. It is time I re-read the book. Every child will remember sobbing over the death of Judy, but other than that the details have faded.
Honey from a Weed - Patience Gray
I have spent 20 years dipping into this marvellous and eccentric book. Patience Gray lived all over the Mediterranean with her sculptor partner and they truly lived from the land, catching fish or snails or rabbits, making their own simple cheeses, foraging for wild herbs, mushrooms, nuts and salad leaves, pounding herb pastes in rough mortars and grilling over twigs of mountain herbs.
French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David
This classic work led me to a lifelong interest in the stories behind the great regional dishes of France. Over many, many years and many holidays in France I have followed trails suggested by Elizabeth David and have tasted dishes and cheeses and investigated small hamlets all mentioned in the pages of this wonderful book. I treasure it and use it constantly.
Billabong books - Mary Grant Bruce
In a similar way to Seven Little Australians, the Billabong books by Mary Grant Bruce caught my imagination. I loved the characters and what Norah, Wally and Jim did seemed very real to me. The books contained exciting depictions of an earlier Australia. I was intrigued by these families living on large outback stations, with dust and horses and Aboriginal stockmen and snakes and waterholes.
The Cook's Companion - Stephanie Alexander
This book really did change my life. Not only did it succeed financially so that I was able to choose how to spend the next part of my life, but it has offered me the sort of reward that few authors receive. Daily, I am told by members of the public how they love this book and how they use it. That is a wonderful feeling.