For the past ten years or so, food books have become a side arm of anything connected to television. During Christmas time, the usual trio of suspects - Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver - all issue yet another hard tome full of recipes we've already made or seen.

Warm Bread and Honey Cake is so different from this. First of all, the author is almost an unknown in the celebrity cook stakes. Second, the book itself is oozing with beautiful bakery items from all across the middle east, Northern Africa and Europe. The methods are simple yet she really has managed to amass some of the most beautiful and moreish items from these areas of the world: Try the Azorean Spice Cake with its nutmeg, walnuts and ginger, or a Fresh Cherry Cake if you ever find them in season, The Nutty Meringue Slices with their layers of cream and fresh strawberries are just sublime. She loves slices and uses layers of everything in different recipes including the Gerbeaud Slices from Budapest.

There are also savoury items, the kind of which everybody should serve in a bakery but never does, such as the Quick Cheese and Parsley Buns (closer to our qassatat than we'd care to admit), chicken patties and pastries stuffed with lamb.

Some cookery books become staples in the kitchen. Warm Bread and Honey Cake is that kind of book, and so beautifully well-written that it's just the thing on a cold Winter evening, warm cup of tea in hand. It's a book for cooks and readers. No wonder that when I asked for it at Waterstone's in London the girl serving me, a mere slip of 20, simply said 'I have to buy one for myself!' and promptly did.