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

When the world becomes overwhelming, Ella Risbridger focuses on the little things that bring her joy, like enjoying a glass of wine when cooking, FaceTiming with a friend whilst making bagels, and sharing recipes that are good for the soul. One night she found herself lying on her kitchen floor, wondering if she would ever get up - 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 recipes so inviting that you will head straight for the kitchen: roast garlic and tomato soup, uplifting chilli-lemon spaghetti, charred leek lasagne, squash skillet pie, spicy fish finger sandwiches and burnt-butter brownies. It's the kind of cooking you can do a little bit drunk, that 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 it with a cup of tea (or a glass of that wine), you'll also discover that it's an annotated list of 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.

Featuring an entire chapter on storecupboard recipes.

'A moving testimonial to the redemptive power of cooking. Risbridger knows that it offers not just solace but a map; cooking can save you. Generous, honest and uplifting. I wish I'd had this book when I was in my twenties' Diana Henry

Recipes that reveal the life-changing happiness of cooking

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

There was a time when, for Ella Risbridger, the world had become overwhelming. Sounds were too loud, colours were too bright, everyone moved too fast. One night she found herself lying on her kitchen floor, wondering if she would ever get up – 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 recipes so inviting that you will head straight for the kitchen: roast garlic and tomato soup, uplifting chilli-lemon spaghetti, charred leek lasagne, squash skillet pie, spicy fish finger sandwiches and burnt-butter brownies. It's the kind of cooking you can do a little bit drunk, that 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 it with a cup of tea (or a glass of that wine), you'll also discover that it's an annotated list of 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.