Berry ‘wrong’ to call time on dining room

♦ Mary Berry, the TV cook, has been chastised by Country Life after declaring the dining room’s demise.

Last week, broadcaster Berry said dining rooms were a thing of the past, and that her new house will not have one. However, in a feature on interior design dilemmas, the magazine insists that a formal dining table is preferable to eating in the kitchen.

“There’s something infinitely more romantic about the drama of a well-dressed table lit by candlelight than eating supper looking at an ever-growing mountain of dirty dishes piling up in the sink,” it says.