Poor SC. We all turned up at her house for our monthly meeting, but none of us had bothered to read the prescribed text. I was rather puzzled because I recognised the book title and its jacket, yet I had no recollection of ever having borrowed it from the library, nor of returning it without reading it.

The other strange thing was the presence of a woman in a grey woollen outfit (apparently the season’s best seller from Next). She seemed perfectly at home amongst the book group members even though none of us had an inkling of her identity.