The wonder of Waitrose

Rachel Johnson asks where the nearest Waitrose to her second home on Exmoor might be. The answer, easy to find, is Wellington, Somerset. Slightly further afield is Waitrose in Exeter, where I have shopped almost daily since it opened five years ago. It is nothing short of a food revolution, open seven days, excellent parking, free coffee, central location.

When I was growing up we took our sheep to the local butcher and it came back as a carcass. The tinned stuff (baked beans, fruit segments and so on) came to the farm once a week in a Morris van, and I would spend whole mornings with my father going from one small food shop to another. Do I miss that? Not a bit. With all the time I have saved, I have learned how to cook. Rachel Johnson may care to do the same.

This letter appears in this week’s Spectator