There can be no doubt that smoking cigarettes was, during the whole of my long and troublesome life, a glamorous, enjoyable, harmless life-enhancing experience.
Sir Walter Raleigh, who introduced us to the weed, was something of a heart-throb. Kit Marlowe, who memorably said that they "they who love not tobacco and boys are fools" was a dish, though sadly not one available for general consumption. And so many diminutive movie stars had their statures enhanced by an evocative cloud of smoke. I don't count pipes or cigars though, having never been drawn to either Trevor Howard or Winston Churchill, but lest we forget how socially acceptable smoking cigarettes was, until extremely recently, let us not forget how the Blessed Margaret Thatcher went out of her way to support British American Tobacco.
And so, as a final homage to the weed as it falls into obscurity, I shall bring you a series of pictures of extremely attractive men smoking cigarettes.
Today's fumeur is, of course, the exquisite Gerrit Reitveld - the 1920s furniture designer who showed us how to make chairs and tables in a single weekend from old packing crates. He should be a hero of our present age of recycling, but may not be allowed to be seen as such with that ciggy in his hand.
Don't they all look happy? When was the last time you saw a group of people so contented?
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