The Pauper's Cookbook came out in 1971, became an influential bestseller, and is still in print (in revised form). Jocasta Innes (1934-2013) "made a long career out of a talent for making do, making over, and making a home in adversity" and wrote dozens of domestic manuals. In this book she captures the spirit of dingy bedsits and rented rooms - in the same way Margaret Drabble and Lynne Reid Banks did in fiction. As Debora Robertson says, she gave tasty, affordable recipes based on a budget of two shillings and sixpence per meal per person for the "hurried, harried and skint".