Yesterday Amazon delivered Jane Brockets “Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer”, which is part cook book, part review of many classic children’s books and details how to make many of the treats featured in those books that anyone of a certain age read as a child – do kids nowadays read “The Famous Five”?

Haven’t really moved since I opened the package, except to bake some blueberry muffins to take to the beach this afternoon.

I was a plump, ultra shy who existed to read and liked nothing better than curling up on the sofa after a trip to the library with a pile of books and a couple of still warm jam tarts. No change there then…

However, I thought I was the only person who wanted to go and live up an alp with Grandfather like Heidi (despite having no idea what an alp was…they are a rare site on housing estates in Hull). Unlike other girls I never wanted to go to boarding school for the camaraderie, the fun of a hockey match on a winters day or for helping other, less fortunate (probably scholarship) girls in times of distress – no, like Jane Brocket, I was only interested in midnight feasts and tuck boxes crammed with slabs of fruit cake, tinned sardines and fizzy pop. My stomach churned with horror at the thought of “Swallows and Amazons” style adventure in boats, but I dreamed of their hearty breakfasts, big enough to fuel a days roaming and climbing, featuring creamy, steamy porridge, bacon, plump sausages and glistening fried mushrooms accompanied by a pile of hot, buttered toast. In our house childhood breakfasts featured a bowl of cornflakes garnished with a heavy frosting of white sugar, eaten whilst putting on your socks and finishing your history homework and lasted approximately two and half minutes.

Needless to say I have devoured this book of memories with many cups of tea, tears dripping off the end of my nose. I now want to spend the rest of the summer lying on my tummy in a patch of sun, grass tickling my chin, re-reading “Little Women”, “The Wind in the Willows” and “Milly Molly Mandy”. This is a great idea for a book, sweet and nostalgic as cherry cake scoffed out of a paper napkin – if you have children it is a lovely idea to tempt them to read and to cook. Even if you don’t, it will take you back to your childhood…so grab yourself a Sherbet Fountain and a copy of The Railway Children and indulge yourself.