We truly believed that our days of house clearance were over. So we were all shocked when my brother-in-law and I unearthed yet more (mainly) junk hidden in an alcove of my childhood home.

My brother-in-law took a fancy to some Japanese watercolours, and I wondered if my maternal grandfather’s walnut desk might fit in our study. However, this was little comfort when we realised that we now faced yet another cycle of clearing, sorting, cataloguing –  and dealing with the auctioneer.