Midhurst author's pescatarian cookbook is raising money for Cancer Research UK

Available from Amazon, Waterstones, the Cowdray Farmshop Cafe and Troubadour.com, all proceeds from the book – dubbed Pescatarian Paradise – will be donated to the charity. “I’d always wanted to write a cookbook for fish, and I sort of combined that with my passion for Cancer Research UK and the work they do,” Mrs Howe said.

"I found myself quite bored during Covid and it was like ‘okay, let’s do it.’

She added that the book is the happy product of a lifetime of devoted pescatarianism and travel: "I’m very lucky to have travelled all over the world for my business, and I’ve always had a little notebook with me to record recipes I enjoyed, and so I was able to record them. I actually kept them, so I was able to revisit the recipes and try them out.

"Every recipe in the book is something I’ve enjoyed or eaten or created myself, and it’s all fully illustrated. It’s been a really interesting journey to do it actually.”

Mrs Howe is equally passionate about Cancer Research UK, and hopes sales of her book will help – in whatever small way – Cancer Research UK continue its vital research; “It is personal to some extent, I did actually have cancer, and I’m very much aware of what that’s like. But, through work, I’m also aware of the realities of pharmaceutical drug development. I thought to myself ‘if there’s one area that needs a bit of a light shining on it, it’s cancer research.’”

Published in November last year, the book has been out for a few months now, and Mrs Howe said it’s gradually picking up steam: “I’ve had a lot of pick-ups from all sorts of people. I reckon I’ve sold about 6-700 of them, so it’s doing well. I have a good social media network, and I know a lot of people within Cancer Research itself have bought the book.”

Mrs Howe is set to deliver a book signing at Cowdray Fam Shop and Cafe tomorrow (March 21) between 11am and 2pm.