If a bloke can wear stockings and suspenders in a stable yard why can’t I?

We had gone to visit a friend at a stable yard on a country estate on a crisp autumn Sunday. I was going to help his daughter with a pony they weren’t sure about. The builder boyfriend and I drove up a winding driveway past an elegant stately home to an antique stable yard from a bygone era where our friend was waiting with his daughter and their pretty black cob tied to the wall.

Hens clucked from a nearby coop, kids came and went in wellies and warm jumpers, for there was a chill in the air. A young girl tacked up a smart, dapple-grey mount. Clip clop clip clop went the horses.

And then a man in black stockings and suspenders walked into the yard. When I say that, I don’t mean he was wearing black stockings and a suspender belt under his outfit, I mean that was his outfit.