Beauty Of Bath, Laxton superb, Gravenstein, Granny Smith, Bramley Seedlings...apples come in a vast variety of types, 6000 in Britain alone, most of which originated in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many of these are local such as the Cornish Aromatic, the Star of Devon and Oxford's Blenheim orange. In North America and Canada many more varieties are to be found, including Red Delicious, Cortland, Jonathan, Rome, Stayman and Golden Grimes. As well as being delicious raw, apples invite all kinds of culinary treatment from a resourceful cook. They can be sauteed, baked, pureed, flambeed, deep-fried, poached, spiced, preserved and dried, and complement savoury and sweet, subtle and rich dishes equally well, due to their crisp and fragrant flesh. This book brings together traditional recipes, such as baked apples, Norman tarte tatin and apple cake, with contemporary delicacies like fennel and apple soup, roast pork in cider with spiced apple chutney, and quince and apple souffle. It's detailed illustrations of the many varieties capture every colour and texture of apples on the bough and on the table and are combined with information about harvesting, storing and preparing apples, brief botanical notes and some snippets of history folklore. Val Archer was born in Northampton and studied painting at Manchester College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art. Over the last two decades she has exhibited regularly in Britain, Holland and Germany. Her talent for illustrating food is reflected by her commissions, as her work features in the food pages of The Sunday Telegraph and in Taste and BBC Good Food magazines.