Why the Coffee Table is the second most important piece of furniture in your house

I have written before (if not on these pages then in the first book) about how it is not the kitchen that is the heart of the home but the kitchen table. By which I mean that this table, which symbolises where a family comes together to eat, to work, to meet - perchance to row - and, at the very least,  least to talk of many things (but probably not, these days quite so much of cabbages and kings) is the beating heart of the home. It matters not what the table looks like but more that it exists. The kitchen table is where it all comes together and is perhaps, after a mattress and a sofa, the most important piece of furniture you will buy.

For us, in this period of lockdown, we may not see the teenage boys during the day - they rise late, we rise earlier, they breakfast at lunch, we work all morning but, we have all tacitly agreed, we will meet every evening at the supper table and even if our news of the day is scant we will be together at that point and share the same food (well not t…