The kindness of Nigella

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Sunday 28th January 2018

My mum interviewed Nigella Lawson countless times – and they got on really well. Her admiration for the domestic goddess grew after my mum accidentally burned her foot on a heater in her London flat. She wrote about the injury in her column and to her astonishment Nigella sweetly sent her a pot of Elizabeth Arden cream that she swore would heal the burn. Sure enough, it did – much to my mum’s gratitude and delight.

I remembered the incident last week when I, being incredibly clumsy, burned my hand on the Aga. It’s freezing at home at the moment and I have a very foolish habit of opening up the Aga lid and warming my hands. I was on the phone to my daughter and accidentally brushed my hand on the hot plate, resulting in an alarming two-inch burn. It looked so terrible that when I visited a school the following day I kept pulling my jumper over my sore hand to avoid alarming the children.

I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of the Elizabeth Arden cream that had worked wonders for my mum’s foot, so I came up with the next best thing. I found a tube of Kiehl’s Ultimate Strength Hand Salve in the back of a drawer and liberally applied it every hour or so. And guess what? A week on, the burn has healed and the scar is fading fast. I’ve already used a whole tube of the hand cream, (which claims to offer “all-day care for severely dry, active hands”) so I’ve ordered some more. Just in case.

PS: Today’s papers say that Meghan Markle is planning to make a SPEECH (they’re MailOnline’s capital letters) at her wedding to Prince Harry in May. The future royal apparently “intends to break from tradition” by delivering a speech at her reception after the wedding ceremony. It’s hardly a break from tradition. I made a speech at our wedding – and so did loads of my friends when they married – and that was 30 years ago…


Leave a Reply