Mrs Beeton was the Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson and Martha Stewart of the 19th century, all rolled into one! She was the homemaker and cook par excellence and her name has gone into the lore of domestic management as the titular goddess of house and hearth. In many ways she was typical of the supreme self confidence and staggering versatility of the high victorian era, a period which saw the apex of the British Empire, and men and women who rose to fuel its mandate, both at home and abroad.

Mrs Beeton's Cookbook is the Diamond Jubilee edition which was published in 1897, when the Queen Empress Victoria had been on the throne for 60 years. It forms part of the Impala Victorian series which also includes Mrs Beeton's Savouries and Hors d'oeuvres and Never Nonplussed by Peter Keene.

The illustration Blue Lobster is by Annabel Fairfax** and is reproduced courtesy of the artist and the Ray and Annette Keene collection.

**Annabel exhibits regularly in the United Kingdom and is aiso known for her enigmatic children's illustrations and interior studies, which are much in demand as commissions House and Garden magazine has used her work to promote two months' issues. Annabel's work is becoming increasingly collectable and prompted the eminent watercolourist Cavendish Martin R. I. to quote 'lively decorative, painted with a sense of humour; the bright colours and free brushwork make them immediately appealing '