For those who are recommending the Trevor Thom manuals, you are, I think, unwittingly, misleading the originator of this thread and others. The Thom's UK volumes have not been published for over a decade. They are available discounted from the UK Amazon but they are well out of date. The original Trevor Thom series have morphed into the 'Air Pilots Manual' series now by Dorothy Saul-Pooley and others; although they follow a similar format. If anyone is in the process of buying any of these manuals beware if they are listed by Trevor Thom because they will be well out of date.
Historically the CAA have liaised closely with the main publishers such as Pooley and Jeremy Pratt at AFE in order to ensure the current manuals reflect the current exams. Once the EASA got it's feet under the table a decade ago and started meddling there was initially some confusion. the publishers solved this by printing update supplements.