Bible Republished

When we met the great food editor Jill Norman several years ago, she explained to us that what she was seeking when she was editing a food book ­ and this is the woman who edited Elizabeth David, Richard Olney and Claudia Roden, to name just three titans of the food world ­ was a distinctive "voice". When she found that, then she was happy.

Mrs Norman has a pretty darn good "voice" herself, as you can see from exploring the many packed pages of "The New Penguin Cookery Book", her updating of Bee Nilson's original "Penguin Cookery Book", which was first published in 1952. In her introduction, Mrs Norman identifies the problem faced by our food culture as the fact that "we do not always eat well. There is a knowledge gap". You don't learn to cook in school anymore, and young people's understanding of the food chain is dismal.

So, here is a book to correct that knowledge gap, and it does so with magnificent confidence, good temper, and skill. No glossy photos, just hundreds of commonsensical recipes, simply explained, without hype or bravado. The New Penguin is a lovely, authoritative book, and at £20 sterling, it is spiffing value for money.