In 1689, English diplomat, Paul Rycaut visited Hamburg in Germany where he first experienced sleeping under a duvet. He sent his friends back in England some bags of eiderdown with instructions on how to make their own duvets and he also tried to sell the duvets himself. Unfortunately for him, the British people were not keen to embrace this new concept. It was prohibitively expensive, so instead, they opted to carry on using the more affordable sheets and blankets.

Choose 200 thread count and above - anything less will wear badly, rip and develop holes! Be wary of really high thread counts over 800 which can produce very stiff sheets and duvet covers that are not very comfortable to sleep on and are really hard to iron! We picked 600 thread count for our Egyptian cotton bed linen.