Everybody Everyday (Bloomsbury) is one of those rare cookbooks, one that doesn’t stint on mouthwatering photography but which doesn’t let you down with poorly explained, badly edited copy either. Nor does Alex waste our time with whimsical guff about food discoveries and food stories. He has a job to do and he gets on with it very well.

We Brits tend to think we invented sausages, or at least have the patent, although back in the days before we all became primly PC we used ‘sausage eater’ as a term of abuse when facing another football defeat at the hands of the master race. Of course their sausages weren’t as good as ours, much wurst in fact.

So here we have a collection of dishes in twelve chapters and 300 dishes. From chorbat (soups) through salads, the ubiquitous grilled meats, couscous and tajines, everyday dishes, pickles, pastries and desserts. Dishes from what are today Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.

Manju’s fifth book comes in a small, neat volume- rather like the author herself. As dependable as expected from such a down-to-earth voice, ‘Classic Indian Recipes’ is one to keep on the kitchen shelves, it’s enticing photographs destined to be embellished with stains and spatters.

Conran and co-author Peter Prescott are fair about the chain restaurants when they see merit; they don’t go in for the knee-jerk rejection as less-experienced eaters tend to do. Credit is given where credit is due and nor do they bow to popular opinion, possibly because it’s unlikely either of them use Twitter that much and so can make their own minds up.

A hefty tome this, as befits one written by one of the big beasts of […]

Between the toasted halves of this book you’ll find recipes, packed with flavour and light on the stomach. Sweetcorn ‘burgers’ with sun dried tomatoes and goat’s cheese, Chipotle Chilli black bean ‘burgers’, red lentil and celeriac ‘burgers’, Sweet potato ‘burgers’ with lentils and kale and of course falafel ‘burgers’.

Anecdotes and advice fill the book, as does Boulestin’s engaging personality. Pretention free and a good read into the bargain, Boulestin’s lovely little book deserves to be discovered by home chefs and budding recipe writers alike

Slightly cheaply printed, and with the odd typo creeping in, this is not a book for the coffee table. Instead, petit, precise and packed with sensible classics it’s a book the true home chef can turn to again and again for reliable recipes that will always hit the spot.

The book is set out by seasons, which is always helpful and encourages the reader to use what’s in the shops and cheap. A dish of Spring cabbage and pancetta is simplicity itself and you know it can’t go wrong. His idea of using up spare cooked pasta in a frittata is an odd one, but probably worth a try, while baby spinach, pasta and smoked salmon is nought to plate in about ten minutes.