Can anyone recommend a good vegetarian cookery book?

What sort of cook are you? By which I mean do you follow recipes slavishly, or do you experiment?
I bought a copy of Mary McCartney's Food, subtitled vegetarian home cooking. Got it from the Works for £5.99 last year.
Another one I have which I use a lot is The Low GI Vegetarian Cookbook, by Dr Jennie Brand-Miller.
I have been vegetarian for over 35 years, and have lots of books but do not use many. Anything by Colin Spencer is usually good.
Rose Elliot's books tend to be a bit simplistic. She once did a pasta book. On every page she told you how to cook your pasta, so you felt like screaming at her.
Another thing to do is go on the Viva! website, where you will find lots of recipes, most of them vegan, as you do not want to overload with cheese and eggs.
I have had both a vegetarian cafe and a vegetarian guest house. I used Cranks recipe books in the cafe, as most of the people who worked for me could use them.

I like the Cranks recipe books, but they might be out of print now (try the dreaded Amazon). Also Delia's Vegetarian Collection, any cookbook by Rose Elliott, and the ones Sainsbury's used to do: 'Vegetarian Meals' by Rosamond Richardson and 'The Vegetarian Gourmet' by the same. Again, those are probably out of print but you might find them online.

I'm sure there are other excellent books - I often find veggie recipes in 'ordinary' recipe collections

Another tip, if you want to eat fish, is to cook a vegetarian meal, then add the fish on the side. Otherwise you end up staying in the meat and two veg thought process, rather than cooking a vegetarian meal.
As I'm now on my own, I tend to eat lots of stirfries with added tofu.
Do you have a Waitrose near you? They sell a really good tofu made by Taifun. It is ready to eat - we often take it on picnics - with almonds and sesame seeds in, or herbs. If there's no other protein that my grandson wants, I slice up tofu for him. He does not eat cheese.
I always have Alpro soya cream to pour over pasta instead of using milk in a sauce.

Rose Elliot's "Complete Vegetarian Cook book. It's not fancy stuff but lots of good recipes that, like most peoples meals, are based on ringing the changes for cooking the "same old ingredients!"
It's the one I have used most over the last 30yrs. There are a number of ones for fancy cooking as well. It depends just what sort of food you are after.

Veggie Chic by Rose Elliott has some great recipes and not in the least simplistic.

Hamlyn's Quick Cook Vegetarian is full of dishes that can be thrown together quickly when you're in a hurry.

There are plenty out there so have fun!

I got my Homity Pie (yum yum) recipe by googling Cranks.

I WUV Homity Pie, Sook! If it wasn't a Fast Day, I'd make it - perfect veggie comfort food
Rose Elliot simplistic? Well, maybe some of her recipes might be, but I've enjoyed using Gourmet Vegetarian Cooking, Your Very Good Health, A Foreign Flavour and a few others over the years.

I really love the Cranks recipe books though :D

Having been a vegetarian for 20 years, I didn't get on with Rose Elliott for some reason. I use Delia Smith Vegetarian Cookery and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg Every Day book - a great success. Oh, and a Good Housekeeping Vegetarian book is excellent. Otherwise I rely on a collection of recipes cut-out over the years from newspapers, magazines, etc. Even have one or two from Gordon Ramsay, delicious and tasty. And my old "Cranks" books come out, too - though they are falling apart!

Dahlia, i was going to recommend Hugh and Delia, they are both excellent.

Simon Rimmer's The Accidental Vegetarian is also really good. If you live anywhere near Manchester his veggie restaurant Greens is well worth a visit.

I also use the good food website a lot.

But what would happen to the bullocks if they didn't go for meat?

I suppose they'd never have been born.

Yes they would Ana as cows need to calve in order to give milk.

Yes, I was just thinking about the meat aspect. As you were...

Once again, dairy and beef cattle are being confused.

Dairy calves don't generally grow up as very good beef. That is why they arer converted into veal.

Very few, Elegran as we don't have much of a veal industry in this country.

More male calves are reared for beef these days as artificial insemination means that farmers can be more selective over the choice of bull. Fewer calves are now killed at birth and sent for dog meat.

There is a bias against veal, because of the way "white veal" is produced. What became of the drive to produce "rose veal" from calves reared more healthily and happily?

Can you meat eaters go on another thread? The question was about vegetarian cookery books. We have been over the meat versus vegetarian and poor little cows topic before.
Someone bought me the HFW book, but I do not like the man. He's a bandwagon jumper. I would rather have a book from a vegetarian, although I do like the Simon Rimmer one.
Rowantree, I explained why I thought Rose Elliot simplistic.She tends to think that people do not know the basics. That's why I asked what sort of cook GillT was.

Sorry.

I don't know Elliot's pasta book, so I can't comment on that, but I can't say that I've found other books of hers too simplistic. I will avoid her pasta book though...;)

I'm not keen on HFW but I'm not quite sure why. I find many of my recipes from magazines to supplement the recipe books I already have - there are often good veggie ones to be found.

More and more I'm going online for recipes. I have shelves full of cookery books and only use a couple from each book.

Online websites, like Delia or BBB Good Food means you can print off recipes or save them into a computer file.

We had a thread on this subject in 2011.
I've used Sarah Brown's 'Vegetarian Kitchen' for many years.First published by BBc in 1984 to accompany TV series of same name.
Also 'New Vegetarian Kitchen'-same author- published in 1987.
Both my copies are well-thumbed

Maniac, she used to have a really good vegetarian restaurant in Scarborough. I have her books as well.
I recorded Scandimania and watched it last night. HFW going hunting for elk. I fast forwarded at the disembowelling, etc. That's why I do not like his vegetarian cookbook. I'd rather read recipes by someone who knows about vegetarianism.