While many of us were making nudge-nudge, wink-wink jokes about novice sourdough chefs during the 2020 lockdowns, another hobby-turned-business proposition was gaining prominence: candle making. Not the scented, Diptyque kind, these were candles designed mostly for visual enjoyment – whether as part of a tablescape or ornaments in their own right. The truth is, if you didn’t start a candle business during lockdown one or two, you didn’t complete either. Read more: “It may sound dramatic, but when I was furloughed from my role as an events and PR manager, I could literally feel my creativity draining away from me,” explains Tony Jack, who founded the wildly successful Fairholme during the UK’s first nationwide shutdown. “By day three [of furlough] I was watching YouTube videos on how to make candles and reading every blog I could find, as well as a book called