At the height of summer I was living in North Berwick and working in Edinburgh, desperate to finish the data analysis and write-up of my second PhD. On the days that I couldn’t cadge a lift along the by-pass with my mother, the commuting was costing me a fortune in train fares.

However, I found it difficult to concentrate on my work. I was far more interested in sorting out my summer wardrobe and reading Harry Potter novels in French.