What do Tom Cruise, Martha Stewart, Monty Don, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jackie Chan and Ronald Reagan have in common? None of them can resist a certain type of blonde... dog, that is. I am, of course, talking about golden retrievers: those biddable beasts with big brown eyes and silky, honey-coloured fur.
But it isn’t just celebs who are total suckers for their charms. According to YouGov’s ratings collection, golden retrievers are the most beloved dog breed in the UK – with 78 per cent of all British people stating so. And if you’re Generation X, like me, that figure rises even higher. (Must be all those good girls sat at the feet of Blue Peter presenters throughout the Eighties and Nineties; we had it drilled into us.) Forget vaping madness – the country is in the grip of a raging retriever addiction.
