This book has been simmering away quietly for years but it was my friend Tessa de Mestre who saw its potential and goaded me into writing a synopsis. Luckily for me, Camilla Stoddart, who commissioned Just One Pot and was newly arrived at Penguin, loved the idea. When I married into the John family, I inherited a legacy of Fish Store recipes from Betty John, my mother-in-law. I learned to cook like Betty, often from Ben’s memory of childhood dishes, and, like her, it was frequently in response to gifts of fish and vegetables from Ben’s childhood friends in Mousehole. Many of the anecdotes and stories of life in the village come from these same people and I particularly want to thank Royden Paynter and Jake Freethy, Barry Cornish, Leon Pezzack, Lionel Wallis, Adam and Cyril Torrie, Merrick Torrie, Peno Barnes, Robbie Capes and Judy O’Shea of the Cornish Range. Special thanks, too, to Rose Hilton, Nick Howell, Jim Glover and Eia von der Flur. This book wouldn’t have been possible without Ben John, but it was our children, Zach and Henry John, who made me want to write it. Special thanks to Henry for his delightfully evocative drawings, which pepper the book, and to Rick Stein for giving me such a generous quote to put on the jacket. Thank you also for the support of Janet Joyce and Bob Osborne.