I’VE GOT every book that Elizabeth David wrote, in my library. She was unquestionably one of the most superb cooking writers of all time and if I had to choose just one book from the close to 2,000 volumes I have it would have to be French Provincial Cookery.

I BET lots of you have a book token or two or tucked away somewhere since Christmas, so before they get lost here are a few suggestions for cookery books that have caught my fancy in the past few months.

ARTO DER HAROUTUNIAN’S name may not be familiar to many but for those with a penchant for North African food, it’s a name worth noting. Arto was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1940 and grew up in the Levant but came to Britain with his parents as a child and remained there for most of his life.