Many a comedian has observed that the keeping of a torch to hand the bedroom in case there’s a power-cut at night is somewhat futile, because of course you’ll be asleep anyway.

However, old-school thinking and time-proved necessities have resulted in our ‘Torch Drawer’ still being a current item.  There’s the time when a small screw has been dropped down behind a cabinet, or when you need to rummage in the box at the furthest end of the loft, so there are still regular dips into the torch drawer every month.

It would surely be considered a bit weird or geeky to devote time to choosing the best torch for ‘those moments’ but I wish I’d had one of these nifty Osram Raystar LED torches years ago.  They’re really small, very light, don’t need new batteries every few months, can be charged using the permanently-stationed phone charger and are unbelievably bright compared to the old traditional filament-lamp torches.

Their new Osram CUBY range uses the same principle of low-energy, USB rechargeable LED technology but is designed  to be clipped onto something such as a car grab handle to allow for hands-free reading, fiddling, map reading or whatever you might need to do in the car at night.  Maybe not quite as versatile as the Raystar, but a great idea in a neat, lightweight package nevertheless.

An illuminating step forward in torch design! (sorry! :()

Both products are available for £17.99 at many high-street retailers and on line at amazon.co.uk