What is a slack-ma-girdle? How did White Horse whisky get its name? Or Old Bawdy barley wine? In a straightforward A to Z format, the book identifies thousands of individual brewers, distillers and winemakers, as well as the names of their products. The dictionary aims to be of real, practical help in locating beers and ciders, wines and spirits of every hue to their maker and place of origin. Laced with historical anecdotes, a thousand cocktail recipes, essays on topics from the Guiness dynasty to the principles of brewing. Illus with hundreds of drink labels. 656pp. Paperback.

Cannabidiol is used for a wide variety of ailments, mainly related to pain relief, and can be bought in the UK from pharmacies and health food outlets, though care must be taken with dosage and the form in which it is ingested. An introduction outlines the various forms in which the oil can occur, including a chart of dosage by body weight, and we learn that the author herself cooks with full-spectrum CBD infused into a fat- or oil-based product. The recipes start with breakfast, where Hearty Breakfast Potatoes are fried in CBD coconut oil with the addition of garlic, onion, peppers and a range of spices. Other breakfast dishes include Simple Egg Scramble, Glazed Blueberry Muffins, Cinnamon-Baked Doughnuts, and CBD Avocado Toast. Mains are equally mouthwatering, with a bias towards vegetarian dishes, though they also include Shrimp Summer Rolls with Sweet Chilli Sauce and Fish Tacos. Each recipe can be adjusted to use different ingredients. Side dishes include Spinach-Artichoke Gratin and Roasted Ginger Carrots, and there are accompanying drinks such as a Calming Berry Vanilla Smoothie and a Rum Thai Iced Tea. Pet snacks are not forgotten, with a choice of 10 treats, and the book concludes with Self-Care recipes, including Face Masks (of the cosmetic type), toners, exfoliation scrubs and a massage oil. 160pp, a beautifully produced book with colour photos of every recipe. 20 x 24.2cm.

The Bibliophile staff were fooled into thinking that Annie had brought them each a box of chocolates! So attractive is the cover of this keepsake box that it actually looks like delicious white organic chocolate being shaved from a Green & Black's delight. Pull the chocolate brown satin tie and find equally delicious colourful designs on the 30 sheets of quality writing paper. One is a chocolate torte with bright red strawberries on top, another the white chocolate, another crumbled pieces up close and finger lickin' good and the fourth design cubes of chocolate, melted in a bowl with a wooden spoon, tempting you. Colourful design on one side and of course blank for writing your letters on the reverse. 30 sheets of writing paper and 30 bright white envelopes. Keepsake box measures 16.8 x 4 x 23cm.

Named 'Best Food Book of the Year' by BBC Radio 4, the Times and the Financial Times and winner of the Fortnum & Mason's debut Food Book Award. 'The thing to do is just begin. The question, of course, is where?' So opens this cookbook without recipes, a journey into the digressive mind of a chef at work, and a hymn exalting a festive nine-dish spring lunch. A return to a lost tradition of food writing, it is a mouth-watering celebration of cooking. In 24 wonderfully esoteric chapters, Eagle extols the virtues of salting food liberally, waxes lyrical about lost spices and forgotten ingredients, explains the 17 different stages of boiling water and ponders philosophical questions about the ethics and aesthetics of cooking. It is a thoughtful meditation on the craft, chemistry and cultural history of cooking, gorgeously written and with an indulgent compilation of culinary meditations to thrill food lovers. Chapters include Boiling and Pickling with Water, Cooking Fish, Boiling or Not Boiling Vegetables, Dressing Greens with Anchovy, The Cooking of Onions, Almost Frying, Cooking with Wine and Vinegar, Boiling Feet and Bones, On the Lives and Deaths of Rabbits, A Version of Rabbit Ragu, Cooking with Blood and Cooking with Eggs and more. 229pp, attractive line art.

Cake for breakfast? Anyone who knows Spain knows the Sunday treat of Madalenas, and they are surprisingly easy to make and bake in a muffin tray. Here are delicious Calamaries a la Romana, low in calories, and high in protein and containing no carbohydrates, an excellent source of vitamin B for the nervous system, brain function and boosting energy. Besides, they are delicious! Tomatoes are rich in beta carotene and the antioxidant lycopene, a powerful boost to a healthy heart and lower cholesterol and a boost to the immune system. Similar to Gazpacho, but denser and more flavourful, is Salmorejo Cordobes, a delicious cold soup made with ripe tomatoes, thick breadcrumbs, one clove of garlic, jamon Iberico or bacon and three hardboiled eggs. Fácil! Simply Steak Solomillio, Stewed Beans, Garden Tortilla, Small Scallops, a Pan of Pumpkin, a Caramel Flan, the ideas and recipes come from all over Spain and from a wide range of incredible restaurants, some Michelin Star with award-winning chefs, and others where only grandma is still cooking her famous recipes in what was her original house 60 years earlier. Some are from the city, some by the beach and others hidden in the mountains where the author Julie Neville has emersed herself in Spain's world of gastronomy. With restaurant addresses where appropriate, easy-to-follow recipes, full page delicious colour photos, this will make you hop on that next Ryanair flight! If you can't, recreate the authentic flavours of Spain at home. We really love this cook book. 248 big glossy pages, colour.
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Georgina Landemare was not royal, rich or famous, just someone who worked hard, enjoyed her work and was particularly good at it. How fortuitous that her skills were as a cook and her employer one of the most eager eaters and important figures of the 20th century! She was born Georgina Young in 1882 in a small Hertfordshire village and took her first job in 1896 as a nursemaid to the children of a MP, then two years later to work with the rest of her family as staff of the wealthy Bower family in Kensington, where she began to learn the art of cooking. She quickly established a reputation among minor London aristocracy, then in 1933, with some 40 years of experience of the mores of upper-class kitchens, she was approached by Winston and Clementine Churchill for the position of cook. Food was central to the Churchill's lives, not only as a pleasure but also a diplomatic tool. The book is about working-class life, women's work and expectations and domestic service at all levels and also about British food and produce and the growing influence of overseas cuisine, particularly French, the impact of war on the nation's food, but ultimately it is the story of a woman who lived, worked, married and raised a family through the most tumultuous years of the 20th century. 8 pages of b/w plates and some handwritten diary/recipe entries on the endpapers, 390pp.

Themed round the allure of alcohol, these 27 short stories range from the grisly to the completely hilarious and are a wonderful read. Dorothy Parker's "You were perfectly fine" shows a young woman reassuring her boyfriend that he didn't make a complete fool of himself when paralytically drunk, culminating in her expressions of delight at his marriage proposal and leaving the reader, together with the young man himself, to guess whether the proposal really happened. Edgar Allen Poe's classic story "The Cask of Amontillado" is a dark and horrific tale of revenge. An extract from Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim depicts the scene where Jim is the weekend guest of his boss and is appalled to wake up surrounded by burnt sheets, deducing that he must have fallen asleep with a lit cigarette. Samuel Beckett's "Ding Dong" is the tale of his friend Belacqua's progress through the watering holes of Dublin, culminating in his extraordinary encounter with a mesmerising female beggar in purple. "Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest" by P. G. Wodehouse shows the Master Fixer in superb form, getting rid of Aunt Agatha's embarrassing son Motty and doing a deal with Bertie regarding a regrettably pink tie. P.G. Wodehouse and Kingsley Amis; Charles Jackson and Jean Rhys chronicle liquor-soaked epiphanies; while John Cheever, Vladimir Nabokov, and Robert Coover set their characters afloat on surreal, soul-revealing adventures. Other writers include Charles Dickens, Alice Munro, Penelope Lively, Doris Lessing, Damon Runyon, Roald Dahl, and every story is a gem. 393pp, Everyman Pocket Classic. Remainder mark.

Learn how to use every item in your kitchen with this fascinating visual miscellany of all manner of kitchen equipment, tools and techniques, from ovens, blenders and coffee machines to ice cream machines, pizza ovens, barbecues and smokers, food grinders, and scales to the humble spoon, ladle, spatula and whisk. As well as absorbing historical and scientific details there are tips on kitchen layout like the classic triangle for working with greater ease, the knowhow on shaking and stirring cocktails, making spicy milky chai tea, a cold brew tea, iced coffee, a stove-top moka coffee pot, water and filtration, plus pressure cookers, things not to do with a microwave oven, to fryers and food mixers, knives, high risk foods, freezing and drying, it is a fascinating exploration of culinary science and technique. Like a rebus packed with colour and line art and the most beautiful design and explanatory captions. 208pp.
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Activate your body's natural ability to burn fat and lose up to 10lb in ten days and shift that stubborn belly fat. One in 16 people have diabetes and many more have raised blood sugar levels. Based on Dr Hyman's ground-breaking Blood Sugar Solution programme, his new book presents strategies for reducing insulin levels, inflammation, reprogramming your metabolism, shutting off your fat storing genes, debugging your digestive system, and creating effortless appetite control and soothing the stress to shed the pounds. It contains convenient and practical tools as well as meal plans, recipes and shopping lists as well as easy-to-follow advice on green living, supplements, medication, exercise and more. Include as many non-starchy vegetables as you want in all meals and snacks, 4-6oz of protein, one serving of healthy fat like a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil or walnut oil and daily practices of 30 minutes exercise, breathing breaks, ultra-detox baths, journaling, hydration and 7-8 hours sleep every night. Very nicely laid out with tables and meal plans included. 338pp, paperback.

Eating a diet rich in real food can begin to bring a person's body into balance with better health, renewed energy, fewer headaches, IBS, fatigue, allergies, asthma, weight or eczema. You have nothing to lose, so jump at incorporating raw food into your diet. There can be impressive results in a short period of time and it's not all a diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouts, because the recipes in this cookbook are simply delicious. Salad dressings, even Thousand Island made with cashews, tomato, red bell pepper, apple cider vinegar, sweet pickle relish, soups like Spicy Mango and Cucumber Soup with Noodles, breakfasts like Caramel Apple and Walnut Bowl, or Raspberry Buckwheat Crumble Bars. There is an easy lasagne, tomato sandwiches on easy carrot bread, a hearty chilli with nutritious chilli, green bell and jalapeño peppers, Italian Chia nut crackers which are substantial and can stand up to heavy dips or toppings, and wonderful condiments, sweeteners, salsas and chutneys like Date Paste to keep in the fridge, a Caramel Dip, Fruit and Berry Jam and desserts like Pumpkin Pie and sweets like Macaroon Hearts Dipped in Chocolate. Raw foods, real savings, right now with tips for budgeting and shopping to save at the supermarket and beyond, tools and techniques for saving prep time, stocking a healthy and affordable pantry and more. A British edition of a US bestseller. 176pp in large softback packed with colour photos.