To my amazing husband Tom: thank you! For always believing in me, supporting me and, of course, for rubbing my swollen feet during my pregnancy when no one else would. You are an incredible dad to Bertie. He simply adores you. Every day I tell myself how lucky we are to have you. We both love you so very much.
Mum, you have taught me how to be a mumma, helped and guided me through my pregnancy and now cherish and wholeheartedly love my Bertie. I can’t tell you the joy it gives me to watch the two of you together and the special relationship you have built between nanny and grandson. Thank you for always being on call to recipe test, batch cook and even wash up when I simply didn’t have the energy.
To my kind and generous mother-in-law Carol, for looking after B so lovingly at such a tiny age while I lost myself in the dreaded edits of Blooming Delicious, and for always having a spare bowl of soup and copious cups of decaf tea! We are so very lucky to have you and I am blessed to have married into such a wonderful family.
Thank you to my commissioning editor, Sam Jackson, for being so honest and for making Blooming Delicious come to life. It has been a pleasure to work with such a professional.
To my editor, Laura Herring, who just got it (every time!) and kept on pushing me to make Blooming Delicious even better.
To Henrietta, aka superwoman. I honestly don’t know how you find enough hours in the day to be such a wonderful mum to three beautiful boys, run a very successful business, write books and still have time to spend on Blooming Delicious. Without you this book wouldn’t have happened. Thank you for working with me and for all your help along the way.
To my wonderful photographer, Chris Terry, for making the recipes jump from the pages and for making the shoot days such a joyful breeze.
Thank you to the cool, calm and collected Rachel Wood, our food stylist, for being so enthusiastic about the book, cooking such delicious and beautiful food and for all the yummy lunches every day on the shoot.
And, finally, thank you to the design team at Smith & Gilmour who took Blooming Delicious from a rather flat looking text document and turned it into the book that you have just read. You have made it accessible, fun and easy to read.
You have all contributed in such special ways to helping me write this lovely book, which in turn I hope will help so many women eat well, be inspired and stay healthy on their exciting pregnancy journeys.