The Berry best

Dame Mary Berry has released a new cookbook to mark her 90th birthday. SHARON GREEN joins in the Queen of Cakes' celebrations

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"EVEN after all these years, I can think of nothing more enjoyable than cooking," says national treasure Mary Berry.

And when she talks about years, she means decades.

Celebrating her 90th birthday this year, the much-loved food writer, chef, baker and TV presenter has been creating culinary masterpieces for most of her life.

It all started at school in the early 1950s where she excelled in domestic science, moving to France, aged 22 in 1957, to study at Le Cordon Bleu cookery school.

Now, in the year of her milestone birthday, she is showing no signs of slowing down.

In fact she is marking the occasion with a new cookbook, Mary 90 - which aims to give home cooks a career-spanning collection of 90 fuss-free recipes.

It accompanies a new BBC TV series, Mary at 90: A Lifetime of Cooking in which Mary reflects on how cooking has changed since the early days of her career.