This book, and Hugh's series on English TV, were responsible for teaching me how to cook and how important it is to know where your food comes from.  I was a university student trying to eat well on a very low budget in an prohibitively expensive city, and reading this book taught me how to cook simply and with fresh ingredients.  

It introduced me to hedgerow, and despite living in a second floor flat in central London, I was able to escape to the country and dream about a smallhold farm where I could forage for my own purslane and...