Josceline Dimbleby

Josceline Dimbleby was brought up both abroad and in England. She trained as a singer at the Guildhall School of Music but then became one of Britain’s most popular food writers for over forty years. Her cookery books have sold well over 2 million copies in the UK alone, and been translated into many languages. Her first book A Taste of Dreams, published in 1976, won the Andre Simon Award for the best cookery book of the year. Since then she has published seventeen cookery books and was cookery correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper for 15 years, winning a Glenfiddich Award for her pieces on India and the Far East. A complete change from anything she had done before was A Profound Secret — a biographical family mystery spanning 100 years, which included her great grandmother’s secret relationship with the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones. It was published in hardback in March 2004 to great critical acclaim, and a year later in the US, together with a UK and US paperback. Josceline continues to travel widely, writes occasionally on travel and food for various publications, gives live talks and contributes to television and radio programmes. Her book Orchards in the Oasis:Recipes, Travels and Memories was published in October 2010 and won the Kate Whiteman Award for Work on Food and Travel at the Guild of Food Writers Awards in June 2011. Her revised 1980’s bestseller Marvellous Meals with Mince was published by Quadrille in September 2012.

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Features & Stories

The ckbk guide to Christmas

The ckbk Guide to Christmas pulls together our authors’ festive words of wisdom on everything from party planning to homemade gifts – and great recipes, of course. Let the festivities begin!

Behind the Cookbook: The Sainsbury’s cookbook series

In the 1970s and 1980s, Sainsbury’s published a groundbreaking series of cookbooks written by top authors. The books have become classics, and ckbk is working with the authors to make many of these much-loved titles available once more online.

Behind the Cookbook: Josceline Dimbleby on Cooking for Christmas

One of Britain’s most popular food writers takes a look at her book, Cooking for Christmas, and the recipes that have stayed popular since its publication.

Josceline's favorite cookbooks

A Book of Middle Eastern Food

Claudia Roden

I had this book early on, when my childhood in Syria and the tastes I loved there was still vivid. Claudia is not only a brilliant and inspiring writer; her recipes are also completely reliable as she tests them out herself in her own kitchen which should be a must for guiding the home cook and is by no means usual now in today’s chef and TV cook’s world. This like all Claudia’s books is for reading as well as cooking.

First Slice Your Cookbook

Arabella Boxer

The first cookery book I had when I first started cooking. Although I already wanted to try out ideas of my own these simply explained, dependable and always good tasting recipes was a valuable guide.

Turkish Cooking

Irfan Orga

I first went to Turkey in the early 1960’s and was entranced and moved by Irfan Orga’s Portrait of a Turkish Family so Turkish Cooking by Irfan Orga has remained a book which reminds me of his sad story in which food still played such a part.

Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book

Jane Grigson

This and her Fruit Book are wonderful reference books to give ideas for cooking any vegetables and fruit you may have, with excellent recipes.

Jane Grigson's Fruit Book

Jane Grigson

I met Jane in 1976 when I’d just brought out my first cookery book A Taste of Dreams and we remained close friends until her death. She was wonderfully encouraging to me in the early days and sometimes used my recipes, with acknowledgement of course, in books of hers so that they reached a wider public.