HQ CMT is a secret central London location known only to a few thousand cognoscenti, and they all seemed to be there for the Christmas spell casting. This is where making magic is serious fun, and the CMT Christmas gathering is the summit meeting for devoted funsters. I’m not talking about magic tricks, sleight of hand and now-you-see-now-you-don’t; this is about pure ingenuity, Magic Circle rules do not apply.

Rob Higgs starts where Heath Robinson finished – he makes the kind of machines that the other fellow could only draw – and his Corkscrew is here to help the party go with a swing, along with a steady supply of bottles of very agreeable Cotes de Rhone. This enormous piece of machinery, weighing half a ton and made from found pieces of metal bolted and welded together, not only draws the cork from a bottle of wine with a steady whirr of gears and levers, but pours exactly the right amount of the contents into a waiting glass – without spilling a drop. It was brought not by Rob but by Michael Young of Oneofonehundred, the Lincolnshire-based company that discovers and markets unusually talented designers and makers. Did he have a night to remember!



Must have been fun! I would have loved to be there.