Elizabeth Salter rang Home Truths, anxious to rhapsodise over her favourite domestic gadget...

"I'm thinking in particular of my absolutely best friend in my house which is a tea-maker, a Teasmade, which is number two in my family possessions. I had one that lived for about seventeen years. When it died I was so disconsolate that my children very kindly clubbed together and bought me another one. That was about fifteen years ago. And the dear thing has made me tea every morning ever since.

When I lived down in Hampshire and the water was rather chalky I had to give it lots of tender loving care and clear out the chalk. Now I've moved up to Scotland to the Borders, and the water suits it fine. It bubbles away and makes me tea as it always has done; it wakes me up when I need to be woken up - turning on its little light as if to say, 'Hi - it's time to get up."

The kettles you can get you have to switch them on and pour the tea out, but the teasmade does all that for you. And - they're now unobtainable! Unless any of your listeners have discovered one in the shops, I think that they've become extinct - and I wonder why?