Duvets or blankets?

Some issues are ‘life-dividers’ – no compromise will ever work

Sheets and blankets: I have loved them always. The now ubiquitous duvet, current winner in the affections of sleepers, is to me the enemy. There is so much against it: its habit of preferring the other sleeper, and twisting over to his side. The draughts that sneak in from all directions. The inability to be either hot enough or cool enough, thus ensuring broken, bad-tempered nights. Sixty years ago a duvet was only found in a chalet hotel in Austria. The novelty was possibly enjoyed for a week. For us bedding traditionalists there is no enjoyment in duvets. They can never compare with the bliss of laundered sheets, and a choice of blankets, with which to perfect the night. I could never sleep with a man who insisted on a duvet.

Duvets are some of the greatest contemporary life-dividers. Life-dividers? The description was introduced to me by my first husband, Quentin Crewe.