Who buys a pressure cooker these days?

The world and his wife, it seems. And I'm wondering whether I should too.

Will I actually use it, however? I don't normally ask this kind of question where gadgets are concerned, just plunge in, use them every day for a month or so, leave them lying around for the rest of the year then pack them away. But in new frugal mode this sort of profligacy is out of order.

My food writer colleagues on the forum I belong to are loud in their praises. Some of them have had their pressure cookers for 30 years. I probably would too if I hadn't taken against them as a child when the smell of cooking dog meat (yes, that's what my mother used hers for) drove me gagging from the kitchen.

They're also really expensive these days. Probably due to the Jamie Oliver effect (he endorsed one for Tefal) but most are available at half price on Amazon. Customers who bought the Tower 2824, which looks spookily like the one my mum cooked the dog meat in, apparently also bought the Official Strictly Come Dancing Annual 2008. Worrying, that.

Is there an Unofficial Strictly Come Dancing Annual, I wonder . . .