When it comes to cakes and puddings, savouries, bread and tea cakes, the English cannot be surpassed.

When I was alone, I lived on eggplant, the stove top cook's strongest ally. I fried it and stewed it, and ate it crisp and sludgy, hot and cold. It was cheap and filling and was delicious in all manner of strange combinations. If any was left over, I ate it cold the next day on bread.

Hannah loved tea, although she sometimes wondered whether this was because of how well it went with cake and biscuits.

To drink a cup of tea and put two sugars in and open a door and answer a telephone becomes incredibly time-consuming. Every scene for me is about, where am I going to park the cane? When I pick this up, where am I going to put the cane? That's a physical constraint.

The thing about homebodies is that they can usually be found at home. I usually am, and I like to feed people.

I myself am not particularly interested in restaurant cooking. I don't really want to learn how to make a napoleon. I'd much rather learn how to make a very good lemon cake, which you can make in your own home. I like plain, old-fashioned home food.