Fairtrade, Organic, Dolphin Friendly, Rain Forest Alliance – these have all become familiar labels on our food, but back in the early Eighties, they were rare enough to be almost non-existent. It is thanks to the vision of a few key people that the Fairtrade mark is now on over 3,000 everyday products. One of those key people is Lorraine Brehme with her company Clipper Tea.

Josceline Dimbleby has an extraordinary life story. She has travelled all over the world and, drawing on her exceptional memory for people, food and places, has written a new memoir/cookery book entitled Orchards in the Oasis. As a diplomat’s stepdaughter, she was able to experience parts of the world that were little known at the time. She spent her early life in Damascus, travelling from London with a governess she hardly knew and spending five days at sea in order to get there. This is the sort of travel accompanied by leather suitcases and initialled brass bound trunks, where dinner was served on linen tablecloths and eaten with silver cutlery.

Maf, a Maltese terrier, given as a present to Marilyn Monroe by Frank Sinatra became her constant companion for the last two years of her life. Katherine Locke talked to Andrew O’Hagen whose new novel looks at a fascinating moment in American culture through the dog’s eyes.