This week’s must-have kitchen gadget at John Lewis is proving to be Eddingtons’ Poach Perfect silicone egg poacher – selling at a rate of one set every 30 seconds.

In its Christmas trading update, the department store retailer also reveals that having a beautifully-dressed table on Christmas Day has become much more important this year, with sales of festive table linen up 51% on those of 2008.
The chain enjoyed its best seven days of trading ever last week, and has since been breaking more records.
Said director of selling operations Nat Wakely: “This week our online business passed the sales milestone of £300m for the year to date on Sunday. We followed this up by having our biggest-ever day online on Monday, with sales an impressive 35% up on last year. This week is also due to be a record breaker online.”
All bar one of the department stores are showing sales increases, and most with double-digit growth.