Pressed into service, and all for charity

Wouldn’t it be nice to be rich – having enough money to hire a butler to take care of all those tiresome household chores? Especially the ironing. Just imagine what you could achieve if you were freed from the endless drudgery of flattening your clothes every week.

Unfortunately for most of us, that isn’t going to happen, so, to take your mind off the eternal toil and despair, here’s a story that will crease you up.

To mark the launch of Braun’s Easystyle iron, celebrities and fashion designers (the Diary’s invitation must have got lost in the post, as usual) were asked to transform humble ironing board covers into something approaching cutting-edge design.

The A-list of pseudo-surfboard-scribblers included Cat Deeley, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen, Carol Smillie and someone who’s fast becoming a regular on this page – loveable novelist Alan Titchmarsh. The designs are being auctioned by qxl.com during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, to raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

So those of you who want to do your bit for a good cause and do your ironing on a giant carrot – can you guess who designed that one? – or a naked lady, then you’d better get bidding.