Zoe Chamberlain meets a mother of two who turned her love of a cuppa into a business.

The kitsch tea cosies, the starched tablecloths, the homemade bunting and the eclectic mix of mismatching china all add to the charm of Diane Cooke’s career change.

Former midwife Diane is reviving the great British institution of taking afternoon tea but with a twist – she’s serving it to people in their own homes through her Constance Wallace business.

The service appeals to everyone, from five-year-old girls to 100-year-old ladies, hen parties, wedding couples and even a housebound lady who arranged a tea party on her bed as a surprise for her mum.

“My first booking was for a 100th birthday,” says Diane, aged 47 and from Worcestershire.

“She sat at the head of the table, drinking from a cup and saucer with pink roses on it. She opened her telegram from the Queen and saw everyone as they came to the table for their cakes and sandwiches.

Sadly, she died a few months later but the family asked me to do her funeral because they said she’d loved her party so much.

“I also served afternoon tea for a lady who was bed-bound due to arthritis. She was only in her fifties and she booked me for her mum’s 80th birthday. She said she’d never been able to do anything special for her friends and family because she was stuck in bed.

“I set her tea party up in her bedroom as a surprise. Her mum arrived, expecting to make her daughter her dinner only to find the room full of bunting and tea set up for two. It was a lovely surprise.”

But it’s not just little old ladies who like to indulge in afternoon tea as it’s becoming a fashionable trend.

“Hen parties are really popular – they are a bit of a different atmosphere,” says Diane, who named the business after her parents. “I do ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Parties’, where I encourage everyone to dress up, wear hats, gloves and pearls and I serve wine from the teapot.

“I did a book club tea party recently where they had Pimm’s in the teapot because it looked like tea. That ended up quite a wild party.

“Other hen parties choose to have champagne in traditional champagne saucers from the 1940s and 1920s. Another one has booked my vintage handmade deckchairs and my collection of Glenn Miller music.

"I’ve started to put together a dressing up box for the little girls’ parties, with heels and beads because they love it. Some of the mums panic about china getting broken at children’s parties but I tell them not to worry, I don’t make a charge for accidents.

“I have an eclectic mix of china, none of it matches. I just buy pieces I like and I like the way they look together. If cups or saucers get broken, I make brooches out of them. I like to recycle everything. I also make tea cosies and vintage aprons with bunting to match.

“I always take flowers and try to use English flowers wherever possible. Little girls love using the china, they often even want to help wash up afterwards but of course that’s included.

“You’d think it would be a very girly thing but I recently did an 18th birthday party and there were as many guys as girls there.

“I thought they weren’t going to enjoy it but they weren’t bothered by using the cups and saucers and they ate loads of sandwiches and cake. They enjoyed it as much as the girls.”

Diane says her parties are a great way of treating friends and boosting moods.