Shopping

IT LOOKS like a doctor's stethoscope, but if you start hearing Classic FM through it that doesn't mean your heart is singing. It is a tiny radio, with headphones, designed to be worn as a pendant and weighing just over an ounce. Ideal for the traveller who doesn't want to cart a Walkman to foreign climes. Can't guarantee it will pick up the Archers on a Goan beach, but the supplier insists it will work anywhere in the world. It costs pounds 9.95 including batteries and p&p from Ian Stevens, 139 Leckhampton Road, Leckhampton, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL53 0DQ.

EVER since the severed hand played the piano in the Peter Lorre horror movie The Beast with Five Fingers (and crawled out of the fire again after it had been thrown in) a disembodied hand has held a certain fascination frisson of terror for film fans. However, the ceramic palmistry hand being sold through the V&A mail order catalogue has a distinctly chummier appearance. Crackle- glazed to make it look authentically Victorian, the hand is described with the hand lines as read by palmists. At almost 9in tall, it would be big enough to curl around your throat should it throb into life . . . pounds 14.95. Telephone 091-514 2999 to order.

A SURPRISE for everyone who thought Crucial Trading only made indestructible hairy sisal carpets. They've branched out into smart furniture, including this stylish Gothic bookcase with arched top, adjustable shelves and small cupboard; yours for pounds 445, in six colours, but cheaper if you order more than one. To match, there's a Gothic metal chair and bench, pounds 112 and pounds 195 respectively, plus cushions. To complete a Gothic library, stick their medieval-style frieze mouldings around the walls; pounds 18.90 each, but progressively cheaper for bigger orders. Stores at 79 Westbourne Park Road, London W2 and The Market Hall, Craven Arms, Shropshire. For mail order telephone 0345 666660.

MONTHS after Sanderson's was forced to leave its Berners Street showrooms when the lease expired after 100 years, the home furnishings company (wallpaper, paint and curtains By Appointment to HM the Queen and Jilly Cooper) has just opened its new flagship store at 112- 120 Brompton Road, London SW3. It occupies two floors, featuring the carpet collection, upholstered furniture, bed linen and wall coverings. To celebrate, Sanderson's is launching a range of wallpapers copied from the Fifties and Sixties, also on sale at regional outlets.

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