ONE of the region's worst cooks got a little help from her friends this Christmas - six copies of the same recipe book.

Louise Preston, 32, of Skipton, North Yorkshire had made a New Year's resolution to learn to cook, and her family and friends thought they would help by buying her cookery books for Christmas.

Now Louise has no excuse not to keep her promise after unwrapping six copies of Delia Smith's How to Cook Book Two on Christmas morning.

She said: "I was delighted when I unwrapped the first one, but it started to get very comical as I steadily found I'd received a library full of the same book.

"I never asked for one, but I did tell a few people I intended to start cooking after Christmas."

Louise's culinary disasters include making butter sandwiches for husband, Alex, after forgetting to put in ham, and freezing salad - turning it into an inedible mush.