It’s a way we communicate – I pop recipes in the post

re s c ue d it . ‘ We s ha re re c ip e s , my mother, Frances and I,’ Pippa explains. ‘It’s a way we communicate. I will pop ha ndw r it ten recip e s i n t he post to Frances every so often and, years ago, when I had to pay my mum back for a loan she’d g iven me, I sent a cheque every month with the gift of a recipe in the envelope too.’

Franky blogs about food, recording the family meals she cooks. ‘My children will be able to read this one day, but I’m still putting together handwritten collect ions of recipes for each of them for when they leave home.’

A collection of handwritten recipes i s what El is e Kor na h ren s, a so c i a l worker who lives in Edinburgh, and her sisters received from their mother when they were in their 20s. ‘We could have fou nd s ome of t he re cip e s i n books, but to have them in a notebook a nd in mum’s hand is specia l,’ Elise explains. Her mother, Arabella, realised her daughters needed their own collections after they left home, when ‘they were always phoning to check on quantities for particular dishes’.

For Texan-born Arabella, her recipe not eb o ok s ar e more th a n se t s of instructions. ‘Living in Scotland I am di s pl ac e d, i n a way,’ she s ays . ‘ My

Franky Shanahan and her mother, Pippa, on her 60th birthday