Let's have some recommendations.
I love 'How to cook the perfect' by Marcus Wareing.
I've heard 'the silver spoon' is a good one to have too.

Claudia Roden "The Book Of Jewish Food"
Nigella Lawson "Feast"

I love reading these two the most.

Probably Appetite by Nigel Slater. It's not really a cookbook in the traditional sense - no long lists of of detailed recipes, it's more of a series of suggestion of things to try and encourages you to go freestyle rather being a slave to the recipe.

My Mums. Although it's more of a file than a book.

Roast Chicken & Other Stories. Simon Hopkinson.
Delia Smiths Complete Cookery Course.
Moro. Sam & Sam Clark.
The Les halles Cookbook. Anthony Bourdain.
The Silver Spoon.
Made in Italy. Giorgio Locatelli.
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Marcella Hazan.

Entertaining with Katie Stewart.
Everything in it works and works very well.

Delia's Complete Cookery course-excellent for all the basics
The Silver Spoon for anything italian
I have very aold (from the 60's) paperback Womans weekly cookbook too and like Delia it is great for basics like bread, casseroles & roasts etc

Good Housekeeping Cookery Book

A really good basic and simple cookery book.

I agree. I have 'inherited' (read that as stolen ) my mums Good Housekeeping cookery book. it is rather old and is falling to bits though.... but it has character.

I was given a cookery book when I married - 'The Love of Cooking' by Sonia Allison and it's falling apart through use.
What I liked about it was that it went from the very basic, like preparing vegetables to the exotic.
I also like the way it was set out with chapters on Fish; Meat, Poultry and Game; Sauces, Batters, Stuffings and Pastry; Teatime cookery etc.

If I want anything different I'll go on the net rather than buy a book.

I've got a file that I've made over the years, and I couldn't cook without it. It's full of scribbled recipes I've jotted down from watching things on telly, or that I've scrounged from friends, or that I've adapted from ones in books, or made up myself over the years. It's a bit of a mish mash, but I'd be devastated if I lost it.

I'm currently having my whole flat refurbished, they are working in the kitchen so everything plus two cats are in the living room with me! I've had to have a massive clear out ,unfortunatly cookery books had to go Ive kept me Delia books plus Nigella,Jamie and some very good american cookbooks.

Exactly the same for me. In fact i'm in the very slow process of typing it all up to print out and put in a file.

Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery.

The book is old, battered and stained to hell but It's still the one I go for other the others when I want Indian.

the OXO cook book
Jamie Oliver. Love his beef & Guinness casserole
I tend to get a lot of my recipes just goggling on the net, the BBC site is quite good.

I actually don't rate the Silver Spoon, the recipe for spaghetti bolognaise is not very good, and an Italian friend looked at the book and didn't rate it either. I prefer Locatelli for Italian recipes personally.

Agree , I have a few of hers and wouldn't part with them for anything, mine also are very stained, I have one of hers from the early 70's, her Far East book is fab.(also very stained etc)

Any of Delia's books, especially the winter one,
Good Housekeeping, and a 1950's edition of Mrs Beeton which I bought in a charity shop, still reading through it.

Any of Delia's books, especially the winter one, it has a black cover
Good Housekeeping, Readers Digest Cookery year, another one called The Cooks Scrapbook, a 1950's edition of Mrs Beeton which I bought in a charity shop, still reading through it and of course my trusty file of scribbled recipes, some of which I collected when I got married over 40 years ago.

Delia's books - great for the basics and The reader's digest (or good housekeeping?) cookery year - very battered but the best thing for cooking seasonally. And my mum's file. Now MINE - very much stolen!

Same here.. The Spicy baked chicken is a firm fave in this house. Along with the chicken in a red pepper sauce, and the fried onion one.. Truly gorgeous!

Never actually made Spicy Baked Chicken. Made the other two, I especially love chicken in a fried onion sauce, i've probably made that the most along with the royal beef with a creamy almond sauce recipe which is also a favourite of mine.

We have her Curry bible as well but i've only ever used it a couple of times, I always seem to go back to Indian Cookery.

It has to be the best recipe in the book. Try it, you'll love it. We have it with the rice & peas and diced fried potatoes cooked with ground cumin, salt and pepper. Have it this weekend, and let me know what you think. One word of caution with it though, you don't need half as much Cayenne pepper as stated, I only use about a 1/4 of a teaspoon at most.

Would it be ok to replace the chicken pieces with say chicken breasts cut into a few large chucks. Mainly because I have some breasts in the freezer that i've been wanting to use.

Absolutely, though you might not need as long to marinate them and cook them, but they'll be lovely!!
We've marinated drumsticks, on many an occasion to take to parties,bbq's etc, and they're always the first thing to go!