New Book For Old

Many years ago three or four friends in a flatshare joined the Cookery Book Club. We all chose one particular volume in our introductory offer: - the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book. Not that any of us envisaged such matters at that time, this Big Fat Cookery Book (as Peg Bracken would term it) covered every aspect of the cook's requirements, from kitchen layout to Teaching Your Child To Cook. It became my cooking bible.  
Over the years (49, since you ask) my copy has become somewhat fragile - spatters on certain recipes I can accept as par for the course, as it were but falling apart, held together with elastic bands is so annoyingly inconvenient.
I have been watching the Christian Aid Booksales and charity shops for a direct replacement for years. In Biggar on Friday I found a pristine copy of the same 1960's edition - confirmed by an unedited error in the recipe for Christmas Puddings.
Now I have to update the new one with my notes before consigning this tattered article to the bonfire. I might shed a tear as it burns but in the new one I shall still have the memories - of the original friendships all the way down to the latest Christmas Cake.