Nigella's How To Eat - though I like Feast and Domestic Goddess a lot too - for a good sound traditional repertoire using modern shortcuts like food processors.

I probably cook more often from River Café, but can improvise Italian easily. I need Nigella for reference.

grownupbabes - I agree. They are in a different category - not trying to be sparkly or cutting edge or catapault their authors to stardom - just full of foolproof recipes (and, anothet plug here - if you like them you really really should get Stephanie Alexanders Cooks companion)

Also you can't go wrong with the Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks. You can get them in places like Waterstones and Borders now and they are legend. The recipes ALWAYS work, they are contemporary and classic, well illustrated and cheap to buy. They are really good because they are basically non-fancy A4 sized glossy paperbacks divided up into categories or styles - eg Wok, or Italian, or Salads, or Favourite Cakes, or whatever.
I'm a big fan of these.

Peachy - what are your favourites from Domestic Goddess?

For basic ' how do I?' = Margeriote Patten / Delia

For inspiration - Nigel Slater

For challenging... Gary Rhodes or Rick Stein.

Not a fan of nigella or Jamie

I really like Rachel Allen - especially her Favourite Food at Home book. Plus love Nigella's Feast and Nigella Bites books.

I love Jamie Oliver's 'At home' cookbook.

Full of wonderful hearty recipes that are so simple to make and absolutely delicious. I use mine at least once a week. My absolute favourite.

My favourite cookbook for cakes is Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell

Mrs Beeton

Mrs Beeton

Mrs Beeton.

The rest are just derivatives.

never cooked anything from silver spoon
delia
nigella

Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cookbook, for everyday meals and nice baking -- needs US measuring cups and spoons. Julia Child's The Art of French Cooking is fabulous and indispensable. Lidia Bastianich recipes on the internet for gorgeous Italian recipes (she has a few books out too but I rely on the internet), Madhur Jaffrey for Indian, and Nigella's Domestic Goddess and Nigella Bites. I have an old American cookbook called The Joy of Cooking which has instructions on how to skin and cook a squirrel, and cooking instructions for other varmints too.