When Charlotte Hume couldn't get her son Freddie to eat his greens, she harnessed the power of the internet, inviting people to post recipes and tips while documenting her own blow-by-blow account of her mission to get Freddie to try vegetables from A-Z.

Her blog, http://www.greatbigvegchallenge.blogspot.com">www.greatbigvegchallenge.blogspot.com, has attracted thousands of posts while Charlotte and Freddie have become experts on the treatment of veggiephobia in children.

"We ate through the A to Z of vegetables and the blog charted our vegetable journey," Charlotte told the Beacon last Thursday.

On Saturday members of the public had the chance to learn more about mother and son's delightful veggie journey when Charlotte was one of the speakers at Abergavenny Food Festival.

Charlotte lives in Coleford and was educated at Haberdashers Monmouth School for Girls from 1979 to 1986 where she was Head Girl.

"It has to be said that at school, home economics was not my strongest subject, but it did give me a love of cooking," said Charlotte.

"My very patient cookery teacher was Jan Thomas."

Whilst at school Charlotte wrote her first articles -  for the Beacon and The Forest of Dean newspapers. 

On leaving school she went on to study English at St Hugh's College, Oxford University, and after gaining her degree joined Independent Television News in London as a graduate trainee, went on to become a television correspondent for them.

Charlotte's charming book is entitled "The Great Big Veg Challenge" and contains 100 delicious, child-friendly recipes, beautifully photographed by Peter Jones, as well as telling the touching story of how a mother changed her son's eating habits for good.

The Great Big Veg Challenge is published by Vermillion, £16.99.