Behind every pair of beautiful curtains there is a steady, simple, reliable workhorse putting in the hours for the sake of privacy and decoration. An ever effective, stealthy operator, always under the radar but without its dedication and commitment to the cause, our lives would be very different. Enter stage left...The Curtain pole!

Although remaining very much a behind the scenes activist, the curtain pole has wilted to peer pressure in recent years and has been forced to glamour up a little and "go public" in new and shiny ways.

The drab, bog standard wooden curtain poles of yesteryear are a thing of the past as metal and brass (to name just a couple) have been jostling for attention and dragged all their many cousins (including dazzling new wooden cousins) kicking and screaming into the new millennium with them.

They say all that glitters isn't gold, but you would be hard pressed to find fault with the role of the faithful curtain pole. In this modern designer world, curtain poles and tracks have been liberated, daring and bold, no longer satisfied with a back seat, no longer satisfied with a bit part, no longer waiting for a curtain call but stepping out into the limelight and taking centre stage, seizing their window of opportunity.

We salute you oh mighty curtain pole! You hold together and support the very fabric of our society, bringing us light and confidence. Ever silent yet unmovable, spanning the vast chasms of darkness and our key to the world beyond. This is your time, a time for you to sparkle and enlighten. A time for mankind to sit up and take notice and to realise that without you our material would be just an untidy heap, a mess of silken pattern crumpled and broken, an area utterly "un-vacuum- able" and full of despair.

Draw back the curtains and enjoy a new dawn and a bright future. Draped in success, adorned in colour and splendour, the humble curtain pole is here and will remain a part of all of our lives, wherever we live, whatever we do. Long live the curtain pole!

Finito.....or should that read finial!