The peculiar perils of disobeying nanny

Alan Titchmarsh has written an article for that famous gastronomic publication Gardeners’ World, decrying the boom in avocados for breakfast, saying that he longs to come downstairs and find a bowl of kedgeree on the kitchen table instead. “Now there’s a proper breakfast.” Not for me. When I was a toddler, we had a nanny who decided to make me spiced kedgeree for my tea one day. I was a chubby, Billy Bunter-ish baby who swallowed almost everything in sight, but apparently this didn’t go down at all. As punishment for my disobedience, the nanny (a stern, English sort) decided to serve it again for breakfast. Again I refused, tearfully, and was fortunately then rescued by my mother who discovered this attempt at force-feeding and sent the nanny packing. On balance, Oliver Twist probably had it worse, but I haven’t been able to stomach kedgeree for breakfast since.