• When I was young, a real treat was Callard and Bowsers Butterscotch, which came in a cardboard box with oblong tablets of butterscotch wrapped in silver paper.

    But now we Have Werther’s Original instead. Since their insipid, but hugely sucessful adverts with grandad giving his grandson Werther’s Original, Just like his Grandad gave him, I’ve not seen Callard and Bosers again.

    Meanwhile I got a taste for them. I only ever have them in the car, I like them on long journeys.

    The trouble with a succesful pruduct is that maufacturers get bored amkeing them and think they can extend the brand – this is kllnown as line extension. Its often successful for a short while but ultimately weakens the original brand.

    So Can you get Werther’s Original any more? Well,it seeems not. You cvan get the soft version and the caramel version and msoft butter centres and chocolate whips and evrything else that you can imagine, but can you find ORUIGINAL Werther’s Original? No!

    I wonder if you can still get Callard and Bowser? No, It seems they were sold to Wrigley and the Butterscotch has been discontinued.

    Werthers were made in Germany and go back to 1903 named Werthers Echte after the village they came from. Grandpa never gave them to his grandson and he never got them from his grandad. It was a marketing spiel when Stork took the product worldwide in the 1090s. Believe nothing – mourn the passing of Callard and Bowser. Now mourn the passing of Echte Werther’s Original.

  • [slideshow]Coming back from Dewsbury on Thursday, I took ther opportunity to stop off at Hardwick Hall near Chesterfield in DerbyShire. Built by Bess of Hardwick the second most powerful woman in England after Queen Elizabeth the First.

    The Main Reception Hall upstairs is quite extraordinary. I think it must one of the most fabulous rooms in the world. The walls are almost all glass, the huge plaster frieze is like another little world and must have been amazing when it was freshly coloured. With the wall hanging tapestries too, it must have made jaws drop when it was first built. Made to impress, it does its job. The rush matting adds a sense of smell to the whole. I love it. What a fantastic studio it would make!

    Go see if you are passing, its well worth the visit.

  • On Wednesday I visited Widnes, near Liverpool, for an event called “An audience with an Author” in the sport’s hall at the Viking’s Rugby League Stadium. Widnes is a very Viking name, so I started off talking about Viking Vik, which seemed very suitable. Some of the audience looked as if they coulld have just stepped of a longship. Their families have probably lived locally ever since the Vikings came the first time!

    The hall had quite a low roof with acoustic tiles so the sound was quite good. The afternoon session was double booked so I had to share the hall with the OAP table tennis club! We were behind a curtain at the boxing club end of the hall. The tickety-tock of the table tennis balls turned out to be not too much of a distraction after all – bizarre, but quite soothing. We hid the automatic boxing punchbag man behind one of my banners as we thought it would either scare the children or mesmerise them. I didn’t get a go on him, but I imagine if you punch him in the right place, an electronic voice says, “Owww!”

    Thanks everyone for a great day.