Seven Dials bags family cookbook in four-publisher auction

Seven Dials has snapped up Feed Your Family For £20 a Week by Lorna Cooper within 24 hours of submission in a whirlwind four-publisher auction with multiple pre-empt attempts.

Cooper is founder of fyf20quid, an online budget meal planning and recipe brand for families which has more than 500,000 Facebook followers.

Executive publisher Anna Valentine scooped world rights from Carly Cook at Carly Cook Publishing. The 100-recipe book is slated for release as a superlead in January 2020.

The book will contain an eight-week meal planner with meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, alongside savvy shopping lists, inventive ways to substitute expensive ingredients, Friday-night “fakeaways” and ideas for making the most out of leftovers.

Valentine said: “I couldn’t be more thrilled to be bringing this exciting new cookery brand to the Seven Dials list. What Lorna has achieved with the Feed Your Family for £20 community is truly remarkable, and puts the brand on a similar level to Pinch of Nom. She’s passionate about bringing affordable, quality food to the masses, and I can’t wait to work with her on amplifying this message through her debut cookbook, which is destined to be a must-have in kitchens nationwide.”

Cooper, a mother of three and stepmother of two, started her blog when, after a medical emergency, she found she didn’t quality for sick pay and had to slash her family’s food budget from around £100 a week to just £20. She achieved this through bulk buying, meal planning, making savvy substitutes and being canny with leftovers, all tips she will share in the book.  

She said: “I am so excited to be publishing my first cookbook with Orion. I set up my Facebook page five years ago, mainly because I saw so many young families struggling in the current economic climate and wanted to help them to serve up home-cooked food on a limited budget, maximising ingredients, using up leftovers for packed lunches and minimising waste.

“It really pains me when I hear people say it’s cheaper to eat junk food than healthy food. As a young mum I struggled when it came to providing a healthy balanced diet on a budget. But I never gave up. Now there is very little waste in my house because I use every single ingredient somehow! I have proven that it is possible to feed your family delicious home-cooked food for just £20 a week, and I hope, like me and my Facebook followers, you will never look back.”