My great weakness is buyig cookery books. My cookery book collection has now taken over a spare bedroom! They must have pictures. It's the pictures that make you cook something! Pictures get the tast buds drooling that starts everything starting. At the moment I'm trying to understand malaysian food so books are winging there way from various bookshops willing to ship from the area .....

By far the most practical and useful cookery books - I think the ones you mention are the ones - were the original Delia Smith set - I think there were 5 books. They teach everything - as you say - from roast potatoes to yorkshire pud.

It gave the grounding that all cooks need to start from. The other basic book was the "Practical Housekeeping Every Day" cook book. I also love Elizabeth David.