Josceline Dimbleby visited Talking Of Food to record a reading from Orchards in the Oasis, her book of recipes, travels and memories.

Before the recording started, she talked to Helen Garlick about the book and their conversation ranged  from Josceline’s earliest food influences and cooking in a London bedsit to a shared love of American brown paper grocery bags and MFK Fisher.

At the age of seven, tired and bewildered after a long journey from England to Syria via Lebanon, Josceline Dimbleby caught her first sight of Damascus from the mountain road. In the extract she has chosen to read from her book of recipes, travels and memories, Orchards in the Oasis,  the magic of her first impressions of her new home are vividly recalled;  the deep red mulberry-stained water in the pool, the sun-warmed apricots, the scented pastries that awoke a lifelong passion for food and flavour.