Anna made notes as she went along, listing ingredients, quantities and timings, because what she had told Cathy had been true – Anna had once dreamed of creating a cookbook of her own. She’d helped Geoff with the first of his, in fact, because he’d declared himself to be an ideas man, with no interest in the actual practicalities of how one described the cooking process so that a home cook could follow along with ease. That book had been timed to coincide with the first TV series, and it had been a lot of work that she’d had to fit in around her usual shifts at the restaurant. When the proofs had come in for them to check, there had been a note from the editor, suggesting that Geoff include an acknowledgement page. Her name had been one of the last in the short paragraph. ‘Thank you to my girlfriend Anna for her support’, was what it had said. After that, when the show had been such a success and it was clear there would be as many more books as he could churn out, Geoff had insisted that he be given a ‘proper’ ghostwriter. From then on, the publisher had paid someone to do the job that Anna had done for nothing. She had looked at the acknowledgements of the second book, simply out of interest. Her name had not appeared at all. She hadn’t asked Geoff about it, thinking badly of herself for feeling that it should have been. After all, when it came down to it, she was only his girlfriend and a sous chef at his restaurant, wasn’t she? Why should she expect any thanks?

Cathy hadn’t held back her anger on Anna’s behalf.

‘But it’s like Geoff always says, isn’t it?’ Anna had told her friend. ‘There is no “I” in team.’

‘Oh, come off it!’ Cathy had told her. ‘In my experience, people who fall back on that phrase do so specifically so they can ignore the equally important adage “credit where credit’s due”.’

When it came time for her to make a dessert to go with lunch, Anna turned to Bren’s book again. This time she was fascinated by a recipe and a note accompanying it that had been added in 1938, when Anna realized that Bren would have been just seventeen. It was for ‘broonie’, a version of a gingerbread made with oats and using buttermilk and molasses as well as ground ginger.

Mrs Towrie at Stromness brought us this for pieces while we were at the herring, said the note that accompanied the neatly written recipe. Asked her if she would tell me the makings and she did. Best left a night afore cutting. Keeps well for a week a’more. July 1938.