The Story Behind Stirring Stuff at Christmas

This book has been a long time in the making. For the past six years I have been building a file of Christmas recipes, family favourites, dishes from my cookery school and ideas collected along the way. I had meant to put them together much earlier, but life had other plans.

Adrian (my late husbands) untimely death, the long months of Covid lockdowns, and the slow process of piecing life back together all meant that the file sat quietly on my shelf. But it never gathered dust. Each December I reached for it, and family members, now spread across the globe, asked for recipes from home as they began creating their own traditions. The file became a kind of companion, a reminder of family, of continuity, and of the joy that cooking brings, even in difficult times.

Traditionally I have marked my December birthday with a fireside gathering. That too was disrupted by lockdowns and house moves. During one of those final lockdown Christmases, I decided to combine my birthday with a housewarming. Out came the file, out came the firepit in the garden, as friends weighed up whether to venture out. They did, wrapped in their best winter coats- and it turned out to be the most successful party ever. We passed around warm mulligatawny soup shots, dates bubbling with a blue cheese and chilli filling, and the ubiquitous cheese straws that have been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember. The food fired the conversation, and we sat wrapped in coats, talking and laughing until the early hours.

From there the file grew. The idea of a book drifted in and out of focus, but a new partner, new friends and endless dinner parties to connect both sides of our lives kept it alive. People began asking for the recipes, and I realised the time had finally come.

Christmases with my daughters’ in-laws, with Eric’s family and their traditions, brought me to another realisation: while Christmas feels like a fixed tradition, it is always shifting. New family members, new recipes and the passing of time all reshape it, and that’s part of its magic. The hilarity of the blue Christmas cake (originally a mistake, now firmly set in stone - and occasionally turning green), the go-to cheesecake in preference to Christmas pudding, Eric’s gravlax and rösti potatoes, all these dishes are part of their family Christmas, now blending with ours. Goose for us, or salmon en croute, beef Wellington for them: each meal a sign of how traditions adapt and entwine.

So Stirring Stuff at Christmas grew out of that file: a collection of recipes and memories, stitched together from different moments and different people. I’m proud to be sharing it now, not only as a cookbook but also as a way to give back. All pre-orders and the first 50 sales are being donated to James’ Place, a charity close to my heart.

Like the pudding tucked away in the larder, the book has been waiting patiently for its moment. And this Christmas, the time feels right.

Pre-order your copy here