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What’s a winter friend and red all over?
Not only the Morning Star, as RICHARD HORNSEY, ANNA GREENWOOD and HILARY INGRAM explain with a brief history of Britain’s obsession with the hot water bottle
COMPLEX REALATIONSHIP: The sculpture Big Mother, 2015, by Erwin Wurm; Woman at work on a rubber plantation, Java, 1915 [GeorgWassmuth/CC; Public Domain]

LAST winter, British retailers reported record sales of water bottles as consumers look to cut their heating costs as the average household energy bills soared.

Boiling a kettle to fill a hot water bottle uses less energy than an electric blanket or turning on the heating and so is the cheapest option to keep you warm, according to consumer insights publication Which?

An uncomfortable history?

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