FACED with a blunt knife, some old mushrooms, and a dubious-looking tomato, it can be tempting to give up on the idea of cooking outside your tent.

It’s one thing to whip up a barbecue feast in the privacy of your own garden, when the kitchen’s just metres away, quite another to start from scratch in a field.

Cookery writer, Annie Bell, author of The Camping Cookbook, began her bucolic, culinary journey last year, when her husband Jonnie decided to celebrate his birthday with a family trip.

Having agreed with his wife that he would rent a camper van for themselves, and their 12-year-old son Louis, he returned that night looking rather sheepish.

“Jonnie came home and told me he’d bought one instead,” she remembers, laughing.

“It’s been a very steep learning curve,” she adds.

Laughing, she recalls trying to make meals, before realising halfway through that her water source was 50 yards away.

Annie is very much aware that a camper van chef must be practical about his or her limitations.

“All of the recipes in my book start backwards,” she laughs.

“I tell readers how much washing up they’re going to be left with at the end. You can cook some fantastic things outdoors, but if you’re left with eight saucepans to wash, that’s not much fun."