I came across this while sorting a few boxes of books at the MIND shop, thought of Mum and knew I'd have to bring it home. The front cover's not the same, but this is the 1975 edition and Mum's would have been the first, I think, in 1960. 

Mum's copy was still there in the kitchen when she died almost 60 years later, but was in a sorry state and I don't think any of us wanted it. But what a snapshot of domesticity it was is.

I must've bought my own copy of Mrs Beeton's at about the same time as this was printed, but it was the paperback version. It fell to bits some years ago but I used it a lot! I can remember when my boyfriend and I moved in together... shock, horror in 1975... he did the cooking for a week while I read Mrs Beeton's. It sounds ridiculous and sexist nowadays, but that's how things were then, even though I worked full-time as well!

For the record, my Mrs B's most used recipes were rock buns, in all their variations, and the basic sponge cake recipe :-)