What's New plus... Five of the best places to buy cheese

A year amongst the fishes

The renowned J Sheekey seafood restaurant in Covent Garden has produced a sea-fairing calendar featuring British trawlermen which will help to raise funds for the Fisherman’s Mission. Twelve British fishermen (two of them pictured above) have been photographed in four UK fishing hotspots by award-winning photographer Harry Borden

The J Sheekey Fisherman’s Calendar, £15 available from www.j-sheekey.co.uk and in the restaurant from 1^st December. All proceeds will go directly to The Fishermen’s Mission

Chic chocs

French chocolatier Pierre Herme’s sleek packaging makes his gift boxes and hampers of chocolates, macarons, pate des fruits etc covetable presents. This year, their wreath-shaped advent calendar, featuring 24 little drawers, provides room not only for the incumbent PH chocolate, but also seductive extras of your own – earrings, diamond rings, cufflinks… that sort of thing…

Pierre Herme Advent Calendar, £59. Visit pierreherme.com for details

Georgie Porgy pudding

Liberty’s Georgie Porgy Christmas pudding is steamed with traditional ingredients (inc brandy, currants , sultanas etc) and comes wrapped in a liberty print fabric

Georgie Porgy pudding, £19.95/907g, feeds 6-8 people from libertylondon.com

Five of the best places to buy cheese

Paxton & Whitfield

Britain’s oldest cheese shop (they started trading in the 18th century), Paxton & Whitfield were cheesemongers to Queen Victoria and still inhabit their original premises on Jermyn Street in London. This year the P&W Christmas Collection includes larger cuts of Stilton, Montgomery’s cheddar, Mont d’Or, Brie de Meaux, Cerney Ash Pyramid

Christmas Collection, £67/2kg, paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk/shop/cut-cheese-collection/seasonal-collection.html

Lynher Dairy

The Lynher Dairy Cheese Company has won the 2017 world champion cheese at the World Cheese Awards,with their Cornish Kern, a buttery, medium-hard, Alpine style cheese. Kern takes 16 months to mature and is wrapped in a black wax coating. Lynher also produces delicious nettled and wild garlic Yarg.

Cornish Kern, for details visit lynherdairies.co.uk/kern/

Pangbourne Cheese Shop

Winner of this year’s Cheese Counter of the Year award (World Cheese Awards), The Pangbourne Cheese shop is owned by Ali and Jen Grimstone-Jones who stock over 100 cheeses to taste, provide customised gift boxes and wicker baskets as well as cheese towers for weddings etc

The Pangbourne Cheese Shop, cheese-etc.co.uk

Delamere Dairy

The Cheshire-based Delamere Dairy specialises in goats’ milk products. Their new goats cheese pearls, tiny creamy pearls of goats cheese, plain or infused with honey, are hard to resist. Sprinkle them on top of canapés, or on soups or just eat out of the tub

Goat’s cheese pearls, £1.95/100g, delameredairy.co.uk