INTERVIEWING James Brown about his collection proved interesting perhaps because of my family connection to Hoovers, writes Victoria Wilcox.

Pictured is my great-grandfather, Harold Edward Rainbow, in Essex. Harold entered a Hoover competition in 1919 and wrote the slogan "It beats as it sweeps as it cleans". He won £5 prize money and the company used the slogan on its machines. He was always quite proud of this claim to fame and, while the prize may have been small, the glory was pretty big.