Tom Stobart's award-winning Herbs Spices and Flavourings has long been recognized as the authoritative work on the subject. It is a truly amazing source of information covering, alphabetically, over 400 different herbs, spices and flavourings found throughout the world and based on the extensive notes he made on his travels in seventy countries. Each entry carries detailed descriptions of the origin, history, magical, medicinal, scientific and culinary uses, together with a thorough assessment of tastes and the effects of cooking, freezing and pickling. The author assigns the scientific, botanical, native and popular names for given plants and ingredients making exact identification easy and clearing up any confusions which may exist on differing countries' names and usages. No other work in print has ever covered with such exhausting precision this important subject making this work of reference essential for all cooks, gardeners and horticulturalists. AUTHOR: Tom Stobart OBE, was a traveller and explorer as well as a cookery expert. He originally trained as a zoologist and later became a documentary film maker, most notably recording the ascent of Everest by Sir Edmund Hilary. He died in 1980. REVIEWS: 'Clear, lucid, learned, compendious and invaluable.' ? Joanna Blythman, - The Guardian Weekend '?deserves a place in your library if you don't have it already.' - ? Financial Times Weekend