Here at L&F HQ we are, we hope, in the throes of placing our final orders of 2024. It’s always a tricky call to make – brutally, we don’t want to be left with seasonal stock that might in theory sit unsold for ten months. Nor do we want to run out, of course. Our guaranteed best sellers are easy: take a number, double it, add 10% and order that many - it’s a formula for the fabric stock that we have devised over the years and it has served us well. The trickier ones are the new finds we make every year – are we in tune with the rest of you? Do you like what we like? It’s all very well us falling in love with something, but will you? I’m not good at this bit – Isobel has a much better eye for design and style than I have, so my role is pretty much that of Chief Tea Maker at the moment. And Chief Reminiscer - we are very strict with ourselves: everything we sell has to relate in some way to the charmed existence we have in both England and Scotland, and much seems to hark back to my youth in the days of pre-history. So I spend my days at the moment smiling faintly, with a far-off look in my eye, washing mugs. You couldn’t really call it work.