The cult of the wood-burner

The British middle-classes are a predictable breed. We love nothing more than to take goods that were once prudent and pragmatic and give them a luxury edge. From the Mini Cooper, first marketed as an affordable car for the masses, to Land Rover Defenders that we have no intention of spoiling with mud, we like our creature comforts to be rooted in a make-do-and-mend mindset, even if they have long outgrown their original purpose.

It’s little wonder, then, that the British have been so quick to embrace wood-burners. Because what embodies that no-nonsense, post-war mentality better than huddling around the hearth to keep warm or stacking logs into a shed on a cold October morning? Woe betide the homeowner who doesn’t immediately rip out their unsightly 1970s gas fire with its fake glowing coals and install one of these instead.

Ask any member of the chattering classes how they’re going to get through the energy crisis this winter and they’ll most likely wax lyrical about their wood-burning stove.