STEPHEN FRY,

a self-confessed shoplifter in his teens, recalls getting into a scrape in later life on a visit to Fortnum & Mason. ‘In the fruit department they had these tiny pink apples called strawberry apples,’ he recalls. ‘One of the girls said to me: “Have a taste.” So I tasted one, and said: “They’re fantastic, I’ll take them all.” ‘She looked a bit doubtful but she put them in a brown paper bag and I wondered off to do some more shopping. ‘Then she beckoned to me and said: “I knew I shouldn’t have sold you all those! “We’ve just had the Duchess of Devonshire asking for some and I had to say we were sold out.” ‘I thought, that is just fabulous. I’d snaffled these from under the nose of a Mitford, of “Debo” Devonshire herself.’