My only gripe is that as an audiobook, it really needs an accompanying pdf or content bookmarks so that we can find the recipes.

It’s so lovely to be able to point at an author and exclaim, “This is clearly just a very lovely man.Overall, moving, funny and surprisingly relatable, "Appetite" is a most delicious literary treat and one of the best memoirs I've read.

It’s asking them what they want, cooking the things they ask for, to be able to be the person who delivers. I was inspired after reading it to watch the recent series Best Celebrity Home Cook (series still available on iPlayer), on which Ed was a contestant, and it was an opportunity to see some of the recipes in action, including the famous lasagne. A lovely clean, fine and bright copy of the first impression which is signed, in name only, by Ed Balls on the front fly leaf which has a special box on it for his signature. Nice to be reminded of life in the 60s and 70s - remember you needed both the Radio Times and the TV Times to know what was on 'all three channels'. Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding is indeed the best thing you can eat, but I maintain that beef dripping (fat) from the joint, smoking hot is preferable to Ed’s groundnut oil – and while roast potatoes can indeed be fabulous with olive oil, they too are even better cooked in dripping.

Recipes such as his mum's lasagne, and apple and blackberry crumble aren't fancy or fiddly but they're a glorious celebration of family food at its finest. We were meant to be talking about the future of the Labour party, but all we could do was watch Ed separating meat from pasta. When making the Yorkshire puddings the instructions state to divide the batter equally, but it does not say around how many portions the roast beef and puddings serves, so it would be rather a guessing game the first time.