Cook's book

One Step Ahead, by Mary Berry, published by Quadrille.

THESE days, even the most organised and keenest of cooks regularly finds themselves pressed for time when preparing a meal. The answer often lies in some element of pre-preparation, whether its having a bake or a stuffed roast assembled in the refrigerator ready to be popped in the oven or simply a fiddly sauce or topping already made to speed the service of an otherwise straightforward dish.

In One Step Ahead, bestselling author Mary Berry, acknowledged doyenne of good home cooking for over a generation, does just this, providing 120 recipes which are constructed in such a way that you can either just simply work through them in the usual way or take them to a stage that’ll give you a head start when you have to put a meal together in a limited time.