Delia's book to out-sell Nigella, Jamie

Retailers are predicting that Delia Smith's book How To Cheat At Cooking will out-sell rivals Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver, reports The Daily Star.

The book, Smith's first in four years, has achieved more pre-order sales on Amazon.co.uk than both Nigella Express and Jamie at Home.

Waterstone's, WH Smith and Tesco are advertising the book for £10 on their websites, while supermarket chain Asda is undercutting the competition by selling the book for £8.

The supermarket has had to quadruple its stock of food products featured in How To Cheat At Cooking in anticipation of increased customer demand.

An Asda spokesman said: "Delia's accessible and realistic approach is a recipe for success. So much so we are confident that it will put Jamie Oliver sales on the backburner."

Smith will return to screens this spring for a BBC show to accompany the book. The six-part series will explore "shortcuts that take the effort out of cooking but not the quality out of the end dish".