There is one powerful smell closely associated with the making of coffee in bedsitters. It is the smell of burning plastic, and will go away if you move the handle of the pot away from the flame.

Legendary journalist Katharine Whitehorn''s classic handbook of quick, simple meals - including Swedish Sausage Casserole, Lamb Tomato Quickie and Shrimp Wiggle - became the essential survival manual for the busy single person living in their first rented room.

Whitehorn''s trademark intelligent, practical and fabulously funny writing shines as brightly as ever, addressing the problems of ''cooking at ground level, in a hurry, with nowhere to put the salad but the washing-up bowl, which is in any case full of socks''. Delightful, entertaining and utterly indispensable.

Praise for Katharine Whitehorn:

''A meteor: clever, funny, compassionate, insightful, beautiful'' RACHEL COOKE
''Everyone grabbed the Observer to read her column on a Sunday morning'' JILLY COOPER

''Wise, witty, mischievous'' JAY RAYNER