Embarking on marmalade-making for the first time can be unnerving, but it is not difficult: it is after all a combination of just three ingredients: citrus fruit, sugar and water. Having said that, there are important steps to follow and it can occasionally surprise you and refuse to cooperate. Even now, I find that sometimes the rolling, hissing boil doesn’t happen. (What! No rolling boil?) It skips that bit, as a joke. Or you would swear it was ready, but then it won’t set in the jars. (Relax, leave it overnight.) I had a few years of ill health when much was out of my control, and that was when I started to appreciate how soothing it is to make marmalade, how very satisfying to produce something good to look at and good to eat, which almost everyone is delighted to receive as a present. Perhaps there was a subconscious vote of confidence for the future in preserving fruit and storing it for later; I didn’t know T.E. Lawrence’s ‘Happiness is a by-product of absorption’ then, but there is a sense of peace and contentment that descends when you have an absorbing physical task to do. Homemade marmalade is ‘slow’, not fast food, and it takes a bit of concentration, but the results are worth the effort. You may want to make enough in January to last you for the whole year; or you might prefer to make a few jars here and there, throughout the year, using a handful of frozen oranges or experimenting with other citrus fruit like limes and grapefruit, and adding herbs, like thyme or rosemary in the summer, lavender flowers or ginger in July. Cloves and warming spices are delicious in a pre-Christmas batch. I personally think that the exciting sharpness of marmalade is at its very best when the marmalade is fresh, but however long you keep it before you eat it, the most gratifying thing is that every jar you make will be uniquely your own. The recipes in this book are my own, handed down from my mother and many generous and accomplished cooks, as well as borrowed favourites from friends. They’ve been tried and tested over the years, and tinkered with along the way to suit more modern tastes. Methods vary slightly from one recipe to another, but isn’t that the beauty of home cooking? I hope you enjoy making marmalade whatever the season, and that you find your favourite among the many in this special collection.