Winner of the Guild of Food Writers General Cookbook Award 2020

'A manual for living and a declaration of hope' Nigella Lawson

'A moving testimonial to the redemptive power of cooking. Generous, honest and uplifting' Diana Henry

There are lots of ways to start a story, but this one begins with a chicken.

One night, Ella Risbridger found herself lying on the kitchen floor, wondering if she would ever get up from it. And it was the thought of a chicken - of roasting it, and of eating it - that got her to her feet and made her want to be alive.

Midnight Chicken is a cookbook. Or, at least, you'll flick through these pages and find comforting recipes like roast garlic and tomato soup, uplifting chilli-lemon spaghetti, charred leek lasagne, squash skillet pie, spicy fish finger sandwiches and burnt-butter brownies. This is the kind of happy cooking you can do a little bit drunk, and which is probably better if you've got a bottle of wine open and a hunk of bread to mop up the sauce. But if you settle down and read the book with a cup of tea (or a glass of that wine), you'll also discover that it's also all about little things worth living for - a manifesto of moments worth living for. This is a cookbook to make you fall in love with the world again.