My £50-a-week chocolate habit

As I’ve got older my tastes have generally become less refined. During my youth I dutifully slogged through Kafka, Camus and Sartre, but my current bedtime reading is Sharpe’s Trafalgar by Bernard Cornwell. With movies, I used to feel obliged to watch subtitled masterpieces like La Règle du jeu and Le Salaire de la Peur, but now I’m perfectly happy with the latest Marvel blockbuster. However, when it comes to food and wine, I’ve become more snobbish – insufferably so. My last meal on death row would be the twice-baked cheese soufflé from Le Gavroche washed down with a bottle of Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru.

For some reason, this is particularly true of my taste in chocolate. I’ve always had a passion for sweets, which is why I can remember the day the UK introduced decimal currency in 1971. The reason it stands out is because the cost of a Mars Bar changed overnight from sixpence to two new pence, making it one of the few confectionary products to fall in price on Decimal Day.