Harriet Arkell

This year Marks & Spencer says it is launching the season’s earliest ever British asparagus — it will go on sale in selected stores next week, writes HARRIET ARKELL SAVVY SHOPPER.

Spring’s on the way, our economy’s on the mend — and what better way to celebrate than with a bottle of bubbly? Sales of the classic French fizz are soaring.

A new range of hand-made crackers soon to go on sale in Waitrose contains an astonishingly high percentage of veg, HARRIET ARKELL SAVVY SHOPPER.

Shoppers are turning their backs on fruit squash, according to market researchers IRI, which says overall sales are down 4.3 per cent.

In the past year, we’ve spent £264 million on Mexican foods — nearly twice as much as we spent on curries, and a 12.8 per cent increase on the previous year.

A British classic since it was invented for the then Prime Minister Charles Grey in 1831, Earl Grey has never been cutting edge.

Here are some of the best presents to show your gratitude to those saints who have kept your children on the straight and narrow, including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Miraval Rose 2014.

Seductively wobbly and utterly scrumptious, there’s nothing nicer than a plateful of old-fashioned jelly. And now the retro treat has had a posh makeover, with a range of new flavours.

The cold, the cost, the hassle... Harriet Arkell couldn’t face taking her children skiing for the first time, but a trip to Italy turned out to be their best family holiday ever!

MailOnline Travel’s Harriet Arkell visited DC with her two teenage boys. As they entered the city the ‘teenagers’ eyes shone with excitement’. Here Harriet describes the myriad highlights of their stay. They visited world-class museums and stayed in the opulent Waldorf Astoria. READ MORE: