Belle and I were at the same conference with a surprisingly large number of employees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, all of whom were about to be made redundant. I mentioned to them that Sir Mark Jones was a distant relation of mine by marriage, forgetting that he had now moved on from the V&A to St Cross College, Oxford.

Suddenly our conversation was interrupted by shouts of other delegates who were calling out to a stranger who looked rather like our friend C. The stranger replied angrily “I’m not C. I am his identical twin brother!” Although I could see a likeness, I was not convinced. His hair was far too curly, and when the “twins” stood next to one another for a photograph it was clear that one was at least two feet taller than the other.