With  Noma overtaking our own Heston as the world’s top dining experience, the resurgence of Gudrun & Gudrun knits and the killer television drama coming from the north, it’s no wonder we’ve all gone Scandi-mad.

This is a fascinating window back in time to when food writers were properly educated and actually experienced, there are some really rather good recipes in there and some nice stories. Roden is one of those writers who we will almost certainly never see the like of again; she should be preserved in aspic. And then taken on a picnic.

Crucially, in a time when cookbooks are treasures to look at, coo over and stroke, this is an attractive production. The photography, by Emma Lee, tells a story of Pizarro’s travels around Spain, of the people producing the food and the shops and bars satisfying their customers with a fresh cheese or a wide variety of mushrooms, and there are photographs of almost all of the recipes.

I’ve had memorable BBQs in deep snow and only last weekend I grilled under a jury-rigged shelter of three golfing umbrellas, rain dripping cheerfully down my neck while mocked by everyone inside looking out. So Weber’s book, Barbecue Anytime strikes a chord with me.

From the opening double spread featuring a rack of raw lamb, to the various gratuitous meat shots through out, South American Grill is a meat-lover’s paradise.

Since strumming his way into the Dragon’s Den, Levi Roots has been a household name and overnight success story. As one of the UK’s best loved foodie personalities his Midas touch was always likely to extend to the bookshelves. The latest cookbook to bear his mantel is a bounteous anthology of Caribbean inspired desserts, cocktails and sweet snacks representing the gastropreneur’s first concerted foray beyond his signature realm of savoury spice.

Having always fancied myself as a classical Kashmiri baker, I’m all over Gurpareet Bains’ recipe for blueberry and fennel flan, from which tradition this recipe originates. Out of the oven comes a rock-cake-like slab of deliciousness. Not sure how historically accurate my endeavour is, but it goes down a treat with the neighbours. And, apparently, has the ability to calm aches and pains. Bonus.

Everybody Everyday (Bloomsbury) is one of those rare cookbooks, one that doesn’t stint on mouthwatering photography but which doesn’t let you down with poorly explained, badly edited copy either. Nor does Alex waste our time with whimsical guff about food discoveries and food stories. He has a job to do and he gets on with it very well.

We Brits tend to think we invented sausages, or at least have the patent, although back in the days before we all became primly PC we used ‘sausage eater’ as a term of abuse when facing another football defeat at the hands of the master race. Of course their sausages weren’t as good as ours, much wurst in fact.

So here we have a collection of dishes in twelve chapters and 300 dishes. From chorbat (soups) through salads, the ubiquitous grilled meats, couscous and tajines, everyday dishes, pickles, pastries and desserts. Dishes from what are today Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.