Simmer

For every season, every taste and every mood – this is soup in all its soulful, generous, globally inspired glory.

From the first bubbling pots to the most inventive modern bowls, soup has always been about comfort, community and creativity.

This book celebrates the past, present and future of our favourite soups and stews, drawing on traditions from Iran to Iceland, the Caribbean to the Mediterranean, and everywhere in between. Nourishing, affordable and endlessly adaptable, soup has fed families, forged friendships and inspired recipe-swapping across generations.

Inside you’ll find chilled soups for hot days and deep, slow stews for dark evenings; light broths, vegetable stocks, fish flavours, meat-rich classics and even dessert soups.

Expect nostalgia and invention in equal measure: gazpacho and matzo balls, chowders and callaloo, pea and ham, fake shark’s fin and finishing touches that turn a good bowl into a great one.

Sally Butcher is an accidental and accident-prone shop-keeper and chef. But both experiences have given her a lot to laugh about and even more to write about.

When she is not writing books in the back room, she blogs and tweets prolifically, helps her husband run their corner-shop and restaurant, Persepolis, and organises all sorts of extra-curricular pop-up stuff. She is what is known in the trade as 'a bit of a busy body'.