Both Al and Kitty are effusive about Aggie and Albert, Kitty’s patient siblings, who had to put up with their kitchen being turned into a professional bakery for a couple of years. They come, and usually queue, for the sourdough, baguettes and focaccia, but Kitty and Al throw out all sorts of unusual and wonderful bakes. When I lost my dad, I baked an absurd amount of cakes and biscuits for the hospice staff; I bake (and eat) when I’m stressed, when I’m sat, when I’m bored, when I’m happy.

I feel I’m the lucky one out of the two of us, because I’ve been able to have this second chapter,” he says. And while Orange Bakery became a huge success, it was definitely a gamble for her parents to put so much time and money into something like that. From there I learned she’d written a book (together with her father), describing her journey from suffering of anxiety to becoming a baker.This provided a simple structure to her day, a scaffolding on which she could build as her recovery progressed. The difficulties Kitty and her family went through, the difficulties of mental and physical health, financial worries – but bizarrely, it was the power that bread has over people that made me emotional. I have read an awful lot of cookbooks over the years, some chock-a-block full of recipes such as Jamie Oliver or Mary Berry, and some with a more story-like feel, like Nigel Slater, but I’ve never read a cookbook with as much heart and soul and passion written in every word as this one.

Kitty's recipes have inspired me to try a lot more and I shall be heading into the territory of puff pastry, pains au chocolate and anything with a segment of a Terry's Chocolate Orange inside. The village of Watlington comes across as a wonderful place to live, with so many people helping on Kitty’s journey. It evoked such a smell and image of freshly made bread that I had to pause reading it to make my own loaf so that I could continue reading with some warm fresh bread with an inch of butter melting slowly into it. Pretty quickly, the Taits had more bread than they could ever get through as a household, so they started offering it to neighbours. Not only that but I’m glad to see how Instagram played a part as well allowing Kitty to connect with bakers all over the world and further her passion and skills through the community.The story of how the Orange Bakery came to be is so heartwarming and I’m so glad to know that there are communities out there who will support each other so fervently and are always there to boost each other up. Brush the surface of the dough with the melted butter, sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon, then lay the apple slices on top. Since Kitty has recovered, she has gone out on short placements at the Dusty Knuckle and Little Bread Pedlar in London and Hamblin Bread in Oxford.

Also I really like the form of the book, it being set up through Kitty's and Al's alternated writing, interspursed with pictures and drawings. Her parents focused almost 100% on trying to help Kitty (which is understandable), but also let Kitty take over the whole kitchen. Kitty was the funny and chatty daughter so when that gradual change happened she starts to loose her bounce.Looking through the rest of the recipes I'm really impressed at the range of "basic" breads from bagels to soda bread, challah to pitta, and some I'd never even heard of before such as Fatayers and Bialys.

Place a damp tea towel or shower cap over the rim of the bowl and leave in a cosy draught-free place to prove for hours – overnight is best. I love the use of old and nostalgic items to display the bread products, I even rushed to my bookshelf to check my Enid Blyton red hardback books from the 50s and 60s as I have some of the ones used in one of the photos! Remember it’s alive so the greater respect you show the dough with gentle handling, the more it will reward you and the better your loaf will come out. In 2018, when she was 14, Kitty was struggling with mental health issues and found making bread helped her. Watlington, population 2,643, on the edge of the Chiltern Hills in Oxfordshire, is reputed to be the smallest town in England.

There’s the catharsis of it, but there are still moments where, just because I’m a soppy old fool, I’ll find it quite hard to read some bits. Kitty faded from being the “funny, chatty one”, as Al describes her in their new book, Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives, into “a diminished version of herself… subdued, distracted, pale and sad-looking”. All you need to make a loaf twice as tasty as anything on the supermarket shelf, with a crunchy crust and pillowy crumb, is a casserole dish with a lid and an oven that can get up to 210C fan/gas mark 8. The book is beautifully and simply written, with some beautiful hand drawn illustrations, and excellent photography. It is proof, if one was needed, that a loaf of bread can have the power to heal, bring joy, bring together a family and a community and give life flavour and purpose.