Easter bonnets came out of the tradition of wearing new clothes on certain days of the year to give good luck. Easter Sunday was one of those days, and Easter bonnets decorated with ribbons, flowers, lace and other assortments were paraded in church then shown off afterwards in the Easter Day Procession. 

Sadly, this tradition is rarely kept now so I was delighted to see the stall full of forgotten treasures – a place where modern ideas of 'taste' had not penetrated. I spoke to the delightful old man running the stall who said he wanted to revive the parades that used to take place in the surrounding towns. He was going into old people’s homes to make hats with the elderly residents who remembered decorating bonnets as an essential part of Easter. It was lovely to come across someone who was freely giving something back to others – another tradition that sometimes seems to be fading.

Well, I had to buy one! A delightful arrangement of birds, flowers and (in the words of the stall holder) wasps! I will use it to inspire our Easter bonnet creations which – though I haven't told anyone about this yet – we're going to be making on Easter Sunday out of newspaper and decorating with whatever we can find in the garden. A time limit will be put on this activity and, just like in old times, we'll then parade them in front of each other.

As an after-school snack or warming Sunday afternoon tea they always hit the spot. My children can eat platefuls of them and still ask for more. It is important that the bread is a thin white sliced loaf so that they roll up easily and the texture is fluffy and soft in the middle.

Start by cutting off the crusts from a piece of bread and spreading butter on both sides of the slice. Put on as much Marmite as your taste buds like and roll tightly up. Place under the grill until toasted, turning to ensure all sides are browned.

I introduced the idea to my friend Anna-Louise and she modified the recipe a bit by mixing the Marmite and butter together in a bowl and then spreading this on the bread. This method gave a very intense Marmite taste and was equally satisfying.

But be warned, you may find that once your family have discovered the delights of these rolls, one loaf of bread will not be enough!

Andrew: When my children were small I had the pleasure of walking them to school most days. I can’t remember exactly how it began, but it soon became a feature of these walks that I would tell them a story – anything at all, from extended jokes involving a man and a runaway pie to episodes from the King Arthur legend or Don Quixote tilting at windmills. Gradually, inevitably, we began to invent characters and situations of our own. I say 'we' because, although I supplied the basics of plot, setting, character and so on, the children’s questions, ideas, objections and elaborations were what brought the stories to life. The 15-minute journey from front door to school gate readily lent itself to the cliff-hanger format which powers the Arabian Nights, and we were soon embarked on a kind of Thousand-and-One Mornings, over the course of which a whole cycle of stories developed about two children whose magical home, Four Corner House, was the starting-point for all kinds of adventures.

With the encouragement of Heart & Home, I’m now writing about Four Corner House for a wider audience: maybe others will enjoy reading the stories (and, I hope, telling and extending them). I’m delighted that at least one person has been inspired to join the adventure with ideas of her own: the illustrator Quitterie de Castelbajac is creating images to accompany the story. The experiment consists of a new chapter each week for the next 10 or 12 weeks. I’ve made a head start, but at this point I’m not exactly sure how the story will end, which is part of the fun. If you’d like to read it, click here