the aga is waiting for me

Each time I think about our new home, I find myself thinking apprehensively about the cooker.

It is a wood burning cooker and I have no idea how to operate it. I don't even know if it works at all. I have even had horrible dreams about it chasing me down the street.

We once rented a holiday cottage with an Aga, and it was fantastic for warming plates or slow cooking a stew in, but I can't remember much else about it, and there is a chance that this could be the sole source of hot water for the immediate future.

Cold showers all round then.

I want it to be my friend, my kitchen comrade, but the more I google, the more apprehensive I get. Wood burning cookers are good for the environment, bad for the environment, cheap to run, expensive to run, time consuming and time saving.

There is as much myth and legend surrounding these things as there is about Camelot.

The new house needs a lot of work doing to it, and replacing this particular bit of kit is going to be a long way down the list of priorities, so it has to work, and I need to know how to work it.

So if any one can recommend a good book on the subject please let me know.

You'll be stopping my night mares, and you will have my eternal gratitude.