Candles & truffles make for celestial content

As a content junkie I am on way too many mailing lists, postal and digital. Sothebys International Real Estate division regularly sends me details of beautiful properties such as this one. It’s very sporting that someone there is of the opinion that I might be in the market for this gaff.

This morning Fortnum and Mason, the Piccadilly pickle merchant, sent me by Her Maj’s postal service an invitation to a season of ‘Autumn & Winter Events.’

These include a Pumpkin Carving Competition in October and then, in November, the store will host an evening featuring a gentleman called Roja Dove.

I think I should share the content of the invitation with you all.

“The world’s sole Professeur de Parfums will talk through the creation of a candle and the thoughts behind its making. Beginning with the raw materials, he will guide us through the evolving process to an understanding of how the scent is achieved. This is an evening of alchemy, enchantment and exquisite education.”

I’m not that interested in candles to be frank. My preferred environment involves machines, mostly those which travel at very high speed on land or in the air. Most of the content I write daily concerns these, their marketing, their design and their mighty engines.

But the Fortnum’s invitation made me mildly envious of its writer’s task.

It is not that I want to write about fashionable scents, though I am fairly confident that the research phase did not take place in a car factory or on an airfield site because of the consistently strong wind that rushes down the aligned runway.

That same week the shop will hold “A White Truffle Extravaganza with Angela Hartnett.” It’s a snip at £150 per person with a wine tasting menu running alongside for an additional £50 per person.

This is indeed how another half lives.