Graduates from all eras had achieved quite a feat in the organisation of a reunion ball at Edinburgh’s Meadowbank stadium. After all these years, I was very excited to see many of my former students.

I returned to the tower block hotel room to change into my evening finery. When I entered the lift, however, I couldn’t remember my floor number, never mind that of my room. The ‘useful’ pieces of card that I carried in my bag as reminders for such occasions all turned out to be defunct shopping lists.

More worrying was the presence in the hotel of both my husband and my ex. They had chosen this evening to tell me that they had never been faithful to me, and that my husband was still engaged in several extra-marital romances. Apparently my main function in my (supposed) partners’ lives had always been ‘credible consort’.