The pipes, the pipes aren't calling: Pipe smokers are something of a rare species
Many of us will remember a pipe smoker –perhaps a grandfather (or, indeed, grandmother), maybe a tweed-clad teacher, or someone on television, but when was the last time you actually saw someone puffing on a pipe?
Just as more and more cigarette smokers are kicking the habit due to health concerns, so too have pipe smokers.
But there was a time when pipe smokers were ubiquitous.
Iconic pipe-puffers included Tony Benn, who was frequently seen with a pipe in his hand at events, and once said: ‘Tea and tobacco are my two two comforts in life".
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson was 1965's Pipe Smoker of the Year. He was later crowned Pipeman of the Decade in 1976. There was Stephen Fry, Albert Einstein – who said: "I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs”, Joseph Stalin, Ian Botham, Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, Jimmy Greaves (pictured), and many more.
Anyone who knows a pipe-smoker will have observed how they light, suck, puff, relight, get out the penknife, tamp down the tobacco, relights, and so on. It’s mesmerising to watch, though not so mesmerising to smell. A good thing then, that fewer are having a ‘Condor moment’.