I always bring back a box of fresh mangos, which taste nothing like the ones you get over here, and a non- caffeine tea called Rooibosch, which is very light yet tastes of proper tea. There is also a milk chocolate mint crisp, made by Cadburys or Nestle which isn’t made here. It’s not at all posh but it’s very good served with ice cream. You can also find this great old-fashioned shaving cream called ‘Prep’ which has menthol in it so your skin feels very soft after you’ve used it.

Apparently you can also treat sunburn with it – it’s supposedly a sort of panacea for every sore.”Catherine loves prosciutto, and proper Parmesan. So when I go to Milan I pick it up in a shop on the Via Monti Napoleone, it just tastes much better from there. I try to get a flight back that arrives at dinner time and then she doesn’t have to cook. Another shop on the Via sells amazing heavy brass corkscrews, which have a really nice action when you use them – other people seem to take a fancy to them too, as the ones I buy always go missing.”Joseph Ettedgui: Designer, fashion retailer and restaurateur.”I don’t go shopping with ideas in my head. For me it’s a luxury when I am attracted to something and can buy it then and there. I buy things that inspire me, and they can be anything.”When I go to big cities I visit the institutions like Tiffanys or Hermes – traditional places that have been there a long time If I’m on holiday I prefer to go market shopping. I go to cities for work things, markets for my home; and I love that contrast I always go to the markets in France I never have time to in London.

When I was in Tokyo I saw watches like little robots and had to bring them back When I got home a friend told me I could get them here. But when you buy things here you don’t see them with the same eyes. When you’re away you have time to enjoy shopping, it’s luxurious. I love giving presents, so if I see things that I know are right for friends I buy them there and then and save them up for the right time. When you have to go looking for presents you can never find the right thing.

I had a very adventurous shopping trip in Bangkok this summer. I fell in love with a huge statue, it was just the thing I was looking for, for my home. But it was very late and the shop was closing, I couldn’t speak the language well and then I had to work out how to get it home.”. 1Strappy sundress, pounds 50.50, Armand Basi.