With the publication of their Christmas cookery books, Nigella, Jamie, Delia and Gordon all have a brand image, or a halo, to polish. Nigella’s brand is greedy, kitsch, sexy and celebratory, and in Nigella Christmas (Chatto & Windus, £25) she has found her perfect subject. The book is fun, but it is also very thorough: it is the best book on cooking Christmas lunch, ever. Her ‘superjuicy’ turkey is exactly that, but there are good recipes for five other Christmas lunches and good innovative ‘trimmings’. Sadly the book is hideous to look at.

Jamie Oliver’s halo shines more brightly than ever with the publication of Jamie’s Ministry of Food (Michael Joseph, £25), though his subtitle ‘Anyone can learn to cook in 24 hours’ is a delusion, or insanely optimistic. But it is a terrific book for novice cooks. Jamie is no food snob. He gives takeaway-style recipes for burgers and chicken tikka masala as well as simple family dishes: cauliflower cheese, basic stew and a really good chapter (I never thought I would write this) on mince.

Delia Smith’s halo could do with a buffing up, after her lamentable cheating-at-cooking book, published earlier this year. And her publishers have found a way to do just that, and cash in on the financial crisis, by re- issuing her 1976 book, Frugal Food (Hodder & Stoughton, £17.99). Though she has removed recipes that used saved lamb dripping as a cooking fat from this edition, some unresolved elements remain: she decries the use of freezers and advocates such hard-to-find ingredients as ox liver. The book inadvertently reveals how much Britain has changed in the last 30-odd years: most women now work, many high street butchers have closed and ox liver is not available in supermarkets.

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