Christmas hamper

This is the hamper Gill put together just before handing it over to the delivery elves. Apart from the tin and the chocs everything else in there was either home baked or preserved, much of it from foraging.

I was recalling today the time that The FT published in black and white. It was one day only and I think it was the day of its 100th anniversary. A lot of our readers were completely thrown and many didn't notice it on the news stands. No-one actually knows how it came to be pink. There are two possibilities - one, that it originally used off-white newsprint because it was cheaper, and the other that the paper was dyed pink to distinguish it from it's rival, the Financial News. The two newspapers eventually merged.

Today it would be unthinkable to shed the pink pages that have become synonymous with the brand. Colours are important in branding - the Green of BP, the yellow of Nikon, the Coca Cola red that helped to create the modern shape of Santa Claus. Change at your peril!