Culinary Jottings for Madras Wyvern (Colonel Arthur Robert Kenny-Herbert) Prospect, £15)

The 20th-century food writer Elizabeth David described Culinary Jottings For Madras as "meticulous and clear" and went on to say that anyone with a taste for Victorian gastronomic literature should snap it up. First published in 1878, and now available as a facsimile edition from Prospect, it is a book of recipes rather than history, but these are no ordinary recipes. Each contains detailed instructions - for boiled meat, for example, the water must be muttering to the cook rather than jabbering and fussing as it does when boiling.

The author was writing for Europeans making a home in India, and focused on the problems of communication, the variations of ingredients, the need to take advantage of the fledgling food-processing industry, which had begun canning foods. His recipes provide a taste of the exotic life lived by those stationed in Madras who needed help instructing their native cooks.

This gem of a book will appeal to anyone who loves reading recipes and following their development over the centuries. It will also appeal to those who love adding unusual books to their collection.