I love a good story. I like a bit of history and I like things that work well. And although Rizla are no longer made in France, they come from Antwerp I like supporting brands I feel are very French.

I have always enjoyed a menthol cigarette. Not all the time, not even every day however I watched Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin puffing away so the St Moritz experience was always available at home, the luscious green and gold box a permanent resident on my desk next to a pottery ceramic ashtray I once commissioned from an artist in Laguna Beach, MARK L. HENDRICKSON who I met at Pageant of the Masters, an annual event to promote and help independent artists in Southern California.

I like many other smokers, (I appreciate it is a pleasure that divides the crowd) was horrified when the sale of menthol cigarettes stopped in Europe. I think you can still smoke menthol in the US. So instead of quitting my one true vice I have found a less glamourous solution than my St Moritz. I now smoke roll ups to absolute chagrin of my family and friends.

It’s quite funny now when I go to my local newsagent and the shopkeeper whose name I do not know who greets me waving the red papers. My friend behind the counter who it feels is always open and always working whatever hour of the day or night to furnish me with my relatively new smoking paraphernalia.

As a relatively recent cigarette roller, I used to use a cigarette holder my family have suggested I buy shares in Rizla.