Cookery demonstrator and broadcaster Lotte Duncan, from Long Crendon, is convinced that if she had published a cookery book a decade ago, it would not have been the right time. Had she worked on it earlier she is sure it would not have been as good and she wouldn’t have felt happy about writing it.

After contemplating this task for some considerable time, there came a moment when everything came together. Suddenly Lotte felt really happy and confident about the way she cooked, and very comfortable about the way she would write it all down. The result is her first book, Lotte’s Country Kitchen (Absolute Press, £20), which takes the reader on a culinary journey through the seasons.

She explained that it took her just over a year from start to finish. “That included all the tweaking and testing. I started writing the book in January 2009. First of all I collated all my favourite recipes seasonally, then wrote down my experiences and thoughts around each dish, before finally linking them all up with more prose.”

Lotte then began testing and re-testing each of the recipes until she was happy that the dish looked and tasted as good as she knew it could be. Once that was done, it was time to sort out the photographs.

“Every dish photographed in the book was cooked by me and then styled by me and the photographer, the lovely Lara Holmes,” she said proudly.

It was very important to Lotte that each dish had that just-cooked look. None of the usual tricks, such as painting oil on garnish leaves, or securing ingredients in place with a pin, were used to enhance the image.

What readers see are freshly-cooked dishes photographed just moments after Lotte had pulled them out of the oven.

She said it was very important to get the photographs right as life is so much more visual nowadays.

“Television, magazines, the Internet all bombard us with images. People are used to seeing how dishes turn out. Also they will have more confidence cooking a dish when they can see what it is supposed to look like, which sometimes includes the baked-on gravy that spilled over the side of the baking pot as it cooked.”

The resulting photographs have a flavoursome, rustic look and include homely shots of her cats, Honeybear and Woozle, as well as flowers blooming in her beautiful cottage garden. She feels such photographs show the reader the whole story.

“Lara just kept taking them through the seasons. I was thrilled when Matt Inwood at Absolute Press used them all and turned it into such a beautiful book,” she said.

Lotte has included loads of cakes and baked dishes in her book, as she realises that baking has come back into fashion.

“Actually, baking has come back with a bang and we certainly need something to cheer us up nowadays with all the doom and gloom,” she said.

Lotte hopes her book will speak to those who say they don’t have time to bake things from scratch. She understands that feeling, as she often returns home from a busy day and feels so exhausted that she would love to throw a ready-meal into the oven, but even so she believes that home-cooked is best.

She says one of the many problems with ready-meals is the price. They are far more expensive and you don’t know exactly what has gone into them. Besides, there is nothing better than freshly-cooked food you have done yourself.

“If you are organised and buy all your ingredients ahead of time it is possible to cook a shepherd’s pie, a pasta dish or even a risotto very quickly.

“We should enjoy food, not see it as an enemy to be scolded at every turn. Food is one of life’s necessities and needn’t be complicated. Simply-prepared food, made with love and enjoyed by friends and family is the way it should be.”

When asked for her food philosophy Lotte smiled and said: “This is the season for fine wines, laughter, roses and drunken friends. Enjoy this moment, for this moment is your life.”

Lotte hopes that her enthusiasm for fresh produce and easy-to-cook dishes decorated with lashings of cream and edible flowers from the garden will inspire others to turn on their ovens and get cooking. She has a theory too — she believes that there would be less war if peace could be discussed over a nice slice of Victoria Sandwich.

“I truly believe this,” she said, adding that she would love to deliver a cake or two to David Cameron in No 10 to eat while discussing our next move in Afghanistan.