Have you ever abruptly woken and, for no good reason, realised your whole life has been a farce? Yeah, me too.

It actually happened on Friday; in fact, the day after I received the following email.

I lay there, around 6.30am, watching helplessly as my whole journalistic career flashed before my eyes – all that work, all that effort, all that sacrifice... and for what? A life in rental accommodation and coffee breath, that’s what.

Why, I wondered, when I was young and easily impressed, hadn’t I taken pig farming more seriously?

After all, history is littered with famous and successful pigs.

Or, let’s be more precise here, pigs that have made money... a lot of money. There’s the film star Babe of course, the two piggy puppets Pinky and Perky, the delicious Miss Piggy, Porky Pig from Looney Tunes (“Th-th-th-that’s all folks...”), TV’s Peppa Pig and Piglet, of course, from Winnie the Pooh.

And, I repeat, all of them have made their owners rich.

Which is why, over the weekend, I decided to resign, emigrate to Spain and... well, do pretty much what Mr Manuel Maldonado, below, is doing: “Selfridges, the UK’s leading department store announces the launch of the world’s most expensive leg of ham in its Oxford Street food hall.

This Iberico ham is not only the most expensive – at £1,800 for a leg – it’s also the purest and is sold with its own DNA certificate as proof of authenticity.

The leg (including bone) weighs seven kilos and is sold encased in a beautiful hand crafted beech wood box that can be used as a stand.

Each leg is wrapped in cloth that doubles as an apron and is made by Spain’s oldest tailor Bel&Cia.

Only a total of 50 pigs are personally selected by Manuel Maldonado – a third generation Iberico Pig farmer and curer – from an early age and are given their own mini ‘dehesa’ of 10 hectares per pig, more than 10 times the space given to ordinary Iberico pigs.

The pigs are free to roam and forage in the semi-wild pastures of Extramandura. This mini eco-system is rife with grubs, wild grasses, roots tubers and the essential acorn. It is this natural diet combined with the purity of the pig which produces the ham’s rich, sweet and nutty flavour and oily texture.

Andrew Cavanna, Fresh Food Buyer at Selfridges, said: “The leg may seem to have a large price tag but when you think about the amount of care taken from breeding right through to the curing, it is actually amazing value. Every single gram will be savoured as one of life’s incredible gourmet luxuries.”

Mmm... Now I don’t know about you, but I reckon there’s room for an Iffley or Rose Hill Pig too.

And for the real connoisseur, hell, it could come wrapped in a U’s shirt!