Why Lakeland beats John Lewis

In these febrile times, there is one place to take refuge and that is in the Lakeland catalogue. Change and decay in all around I see, as John Henry Newman observed, but at Lakeland there is still a universe where you can conquer the perennial problem of taking the tops off strawberries, so tricky if they are a little underripe, with a Chef’n’Stem Strawberry Huller (£8.99), combine a blender with a separate coffee grinder with the Lakeland Blender (£69.99), keep insects off cake outdoors with a food umbrella (£4.49) and deal with wet laundry when you don’t have a washing line with the Dry Soon heated airer (from £99).

There is no problem in domestic economy that is not covered somewhere, somehow, by this house and kitchenware retail company. Lakeland has just celebrated its 60th birthday, for it began life in 1964 with the three Rayner brothers, Martin, Sam and Julian, selling plastic bags for their dad.