Each time that I attended a doctoral defence in a Nordic country I was impressed by the trouble that my hosts took to look their best on a student’s big day. On this occasion GW wore a spangled cream and white shift dress decorated with silver sequins across the shoulders. I asked where she had bought her outfit.

GW turned around and lifted her hair so that I could pull down the tag stitched into the collar of the dress. I wasn’t in the least surprised to see that the label read “Next, size 12”.