The Perfect Picnic

Take a warm summer's day, a secluded spot in the dappled shade, a blanket and a bottle of wine, friends and family, and a spread of delicious homemade food, and you have that timeless rustic idyll - the Great British picnic. Perfect picnic food is simple, elegant and delicious, based around much-loved classics. Hilda Leyel, who wrote this book in 1936, was extraordinarily before her time.

She influenced generations of foodies with her wonderfully inventive recipes , where retro meets modern, such as: Egg mayonnaise on crusty bread Watercress, beetroot and nasturtium salad Chicken and leek pie Spiced plum cake and salted almonds She championed local, seasonal ingredients like watercress and asparagus; she promoted traditional recipes from raised pies to strawberries and cream; and she set a benchmark of refinement with crab souffl and spaghetti and truffles.