FOOD books tend to follow fashions or run to television's tune.

So the latest Nigella accompanies her extravagant posturing on the telly, or the newest Jamie trots alongside his cheerful (and rather good) "at home" series.

Other cooks prefer to stay firmly in the kitchen, as it were, quietly preparing food and passing on useful tips.

One such is Simon Hopkinson, whose Roast Chicken And Other Stories proved a hit, and who here offers "52 seasonal stories", with often French-style recipes charting out the year, made from what's available at the time.

Hopkinson, one-time chef and newspaper cookery writer, is unflashy almost to the point of reluctance - no showy TV programmes for him.

Yet his book is luscious and lovely, even if some of the recipes are beyond the usual budget (tiny new potatoes with caviar and chives) or contain ingredients generally absent from the everyday trolley (pig's trotters, tongue, lamb's sweetbreads or monkfish liver).

As you can't review a cookery book properly without making at least one of the recipes, Hopkinson's pot-roast chicken was tried out on the meat-eating members of the Cole family.

Very good it was, too - with cubed pancetta, potatoes, stock and splashes of vermouth cooked together in mouth-watering harmony, although only after improvising with tin foil and a slightly longer cooking period.

Next up will be spinach, coconut and lentil dhal for the vegetarian member of the family, followed by "A surprisingly fine apple pie" for everyone.

A big glossy treat of a book.