Author Martine Bailey has created a new fictional genre; in Fay Weldon’s words ‘culinary gothic’. Here, she talks about her first book An Appetite For Violets, with a spirited, feminist heroine at its hilt

Danielle Woodward visits the Woodspeen Cookery School in Newbury, Berkshire, for its one-day Seasonal Dinner Party course, and leaves with new skills – and a full belly