A 1920s dinner cloth of unbleached linen damask with chequer pattern, eight unused Irish linen damask table napkins with scrolling foliage design, two tray cloths and two hand towels, are estimated at pounds 70-pounds 100.Modern linen fanciers can perform a service for mankind by abandoning the tradition of the rigid starched napkin. The Victorians always covered the tabletop with a white linen tablecloth; that is why the tops of Victorian tables carry so little decorative inlay.There is a “good linen table cloth” in Phillips sale with cutwork daisies and a floral crochet border, lotted together with two other plain ones, a tea cloth with bobbin-lace edges, six linen tea napkins, 12 of cotton and three “various” tablecloths – estimated at pounds 150-pounds 200.Some of the finest linen has elaborate damask – flatwoven – designs: spot damask by the shiny bits that appear matt on the other side. These days, you may be thought eccentric if you put a white linen tablecloth on a polished mahogany tabletop, instead of placemats But stand your ground. Within living memory in Brittany, before a wedding, the armoire and trousseau would be carried to the groom’s house in a gaily decked cart drawn by two festooned oxen.

The bride’s mother would fill the armoire with linen, then the father of the bride would theatrically throw open its doors, to the appreciative gasps of guests, and make a speech. Then the priest would bless both armoire and marriage bed, and the two families would have dinner.If you feel like getting into linen, the best place to start is the dining table cloth. It is softer, has a closer weave than cotton and is warmer in winter and cooler in summer.There is plenty of 19th- and early 20th-century linen for sale at Phillips’s auction of textiles next Tuesday. It tends to be cheaper and better quality than brand-new linen – and people are buying it as a luxury to use.Linen is made from flax. These days, hardly anybody sleeps in bed linen. Cotton – cheaper, more washable – has taken over to the extent that young people who refer loosely to “bed linen” do not generally know what they are talking about. But at auction, the market for old linen – sheets, tablecloths, napkins – is picking up again after declining in the Eighties That was the decade of tasteless, conspicuous consumption.

The way to impress friends was to blow the City bonus on an expensive car, a flashy drinks cabinet or a dozen suits.
Nineties people are more interested in the proverbial “quality of life”. It is not only the appearance of things that count, but their touchy-feeliness. Just fingering a linen sheet or tablecloth can come as a pleasant surprise after cotton. Promoting pirate radio is also illegal, so I point you in no particular direction. Eventual capture is inevitable, but longevity is best assured by never causing interference to other operators, especially the emergency services Being mobile helps to avoid detection. You can record your programmes and send them from transmitters powered by car batteries hidden in woods and fields, or link your main transmitter to a smaller one; when the main one is detected, cut the link and start up somewhere else.
Alternatively, buy a radio licence, which gives you the right to broadcast on minute power for 28 days, for about pounds 3,000. So you’ve got a choice – broadcast free as a bird while awaiting the heavy knock on the door, or pay dearly for legality, avoiding that meeting with the magistrate.” Interview by Fiona McClymontPeter Moore is the general manager of Radio Caroline, the sole survivor of the Sixties marine pirate broadcasters..

Into this plugs a cassette machine or mini disc player for adverts and jingles Now, the illegal part – the transmitter. If you’re technically clever you could build your own, but most people get them ready-made. About pounds 500 could get you started and ads can be found in Exchange & Mart and The Radio Magazine. As soon as your broadcasts begin, expert pirate-hunters from the DTI will try to stop you, and prosecute you into the bargain (fines, imprisonment, a five-year ban from working in legit radio are among the risks). “The first step to stardom, and possibly a court appearance, is a simple studio. You need a second-hand mobile DJ desk, including turntables, or CD players, plus the vital microphone and mixer. It will pay out a monthly benefit of pounds 800 in the event of sickness or accident preventing him from working, after a deferred period of 15 days.

The drawback with this type of policy is that the benefit is payable for a maximum period of 12 months and therefore does not provide Jerry with long-term protection.Income protection or permanent health insurance would provide cover up to Jerry’s retirement. Norwich Union will provide cover of pounds 525 per month – 50 per cent of his gross earnings – for a monthly premium of pounds 28.03 with a deferred period of 13 weeks, or pounds 56.57 with a deferred period of four weeks. The policy would provide cover up to the age of 60.Jerry could consider cancelling the sickness and accident policy to obtain the better coverage given by a permanent health insurance policy, with the savings largely defraying the costs.. A policy for a sum assured of pounds 53,700 over an 11-year term would cost a smoker of Jerry’s age pounds 54,752 per month from Scottish Provident.Jerry has a Royal & Sun Alliance sickness and accident policy that he pays a monthly premium of pounds 39 on.