There may be many pretenders to her throne, but as The Delia Collection: Fish comprehensively demonstrates, Delia Smith can still see off her rivals, even those with trendy haircuts and manic TV personalities. She is still seen by most who tackle the Art of Cookery as the most sane and balanced voice in the field and there are few houses which don't boast one of her invaluable books.

This volume may not replace earlier Delia books in a similar vein, but it provides as useful and basic a resource as any cookery enthusiast is likely to need. The large, attractive format is always at the service of the individual recipes, which are drawn from 33 years of recipe writing and television. While Delia followers will find much here to stimulate, this is an excellent entry-level book for those new to the doyenne of TV chefs. Fish confines itself to the main categories: white fish; salmon; trout; oily and other fish; and smoked fish. The recipes varying from the concise, such as a very straightforward Fried Plaice Fillets, to the more advanced (a mouth-watering preparation for Fillets of Sole Véronique). A particularly attractive recipe is that for Smoked Salmon Tart, which is an object lesson in concision and practicality--if the pastry isn't--we're told--rising in the centre, we should prick it a couple of times and press it back down with our hands.

Instructions are as direct and uncomplicated as one would expect (this, of course, is Delia's trademark) and up-to-date conversion tables are included, along with an impressive section on fish extras, making this an invaluable and user-friendly guide. --Barry Forshaw