It had seemed like a reasonable and rather sensible plan at first: I would choose my 10 favourite cookbooks from the stacks, the ones I absolutely couldn’t bear to leave behind, and then (tearfully) surrender the rest to the dubious care of the removal men. (After some initial swearing about the amount of books we owned/that they’d have to shift, they turned out to be lovely gents who ran on fags and sugar with a splash of tea.)

Nnnnnnuuuuurgh! I looked, mused, puzzled, wibbled and bit my lower lip petulantly to no avail. But no – I simply couldn’t do it. Somehow, as I sifted through the books laid out for packing, the pile of ‘must haves’ got a leetle out of control and I ended up with 22.

So here they are. The books that I currently enjoy cooking from, looking at and getting lost in. The ones that I really couldn’t leave behind for love nor money. I’d write something brief about each one but, you know, there’s 22 of them and I’m feeling lazy.

1. Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favourites
2. Moosewood Restaurant New Classics
3. Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special
4. New Covent Garden Soup Company’s Book of Soups
5. Chocolate and Zucchini
6. Happy Days with the Naked Chef
7. Jamie’s Italy
8. How to be a Domestic Goddess
9. The Tassajara Bread Book
10. The Greens Cook Book
11. Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings
12. The Candle Café Cookbook
13. Vogue Entertaining Cookbook – short order and seasonal (autumn/winter) (an Australian magazine I’ve never seen again, despite hunting high and low for it)
14. Super Natural Cooking
15. Baking – From my Home to Yours
16. Good-Tempered Food
17. Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons
18. Little Red Gooseberries
19. Vegan with a Vengeance
20. Peas, Beans, Greens – a cook’s book of vegetables
21. Tossed – 200 fast, fresh and fabulous salads
22. The Kitchen Diaries

And, er (sheepish look), since arriving here, I’ve also snapped up the Café Paradiso Cookbook, which is definitely going to get a kitchen work out. Just as soon as there’s a kitchen to work out in.