By Saul Cooke-Black

LAZY Cook Mo Smith has published her first book of recipes since 2005 to help carers look after their loved ones.

Mo, who lives in Bisley, is hoping the book, Meals in ‘Mo’ments, will help ease the burden on time-pressured cooks having cared for her late husband, Adam, for many years.

“I think it is a neglected audience,” said Mo, aged 78.

“After you have had a long day and you are tired, the last thing you want to have to do is cook a big, main meal.

“Hopefully this book can make the lives of those carers a bit easier.”

The cook turned author became one of the UK’S most successful self-publishers for her series of Lazy Cook books from 2000 to 2005.

But since 2005, Mo had to care for her husband who had been diagnosed with a tumour on his brain some years previously.

This is the first book she has published since 2005, and since her husband passed away three years ago.

“I was about nine-years-old when I first experimented with ingredients in my first cookery lesson,” said Mo who grew up in West Bromich.

“I had always been bottom of the class until then because I struggled with reading, but then for the first time I found that I could actually do something.

“I decided there and then I was going to be a cookery demonstrator.”

In the seventies, Mo moved to her home in Bisley with her husband and began giving cookery demonstrations in front of an invited audience.

“I remember giving my first demonstration in front of 12 people and I panicked because I couldn’t find enough chairs,” Mo told the SNJ.

“I scrambled around to find the chairs and then when the first person arrived I nearly fell over the kitchen stall.

“It was all okay in the end though and I had a round of applause.”

After publishing her Lazy Cook series from 2000 to 2005, Mo became something of a local celebrity.

She was featured in a weekly BBC Radio Gloucestershire series and featured in numerous cooking magazines.

“It was my friend who first suggested I self-publish the books after hearing that it could be done on a computer,” she said.

“I only had a second-hand typewriter, though, so it was all very new.

“If we sold one hundred copies I thought we would have done well but we sold one thousand.

“We were amazed.”

The new book, self-published in June, has already been hailed as ‘Absolutely ‘Mo’-entous’ by author Jilly Cooper and includes lots of easy-to-cook meals and cooking advice for carers and time-pressured cooks.

It costs £12.99 and is available at Stroud Bookshop, George Stores (Bisley) Holbrook Garage (Stroud) and The Farm Shop (Bisley).

A percentage of the profits will go towards charity.