After I opened yesterday’s mystery parcel containing a hatbox, fedora and a copy of my book, I realised that other people had been receiving them too, and were posting photos of themselves wearing the hat and holding the book on social media. As I’m the author of the book, I felt I should join in straight away – until I looked in the mirror, that is.

At that point, I realised I hadn’t brushed my hair for days, I had tons of mascara under my eyes but none whatsoever on my eyelashes, and I was still wearing my dressing gown. At 4pm.

Modelling the fedora for a photograph would have to wait until the following day, to allow me time to rebuild myself – or to polish a you-know-what (which might be a more accurate way to describe the magnitude of the task ahead).

The whole process took so long, I only finished the you-know-what polishing exercise a couple of hours ago, so here’s the photo my husband took as soon as I had. (I’ve got a HUGE head, so that’s why the fedora doesn’t hide as much of my face as it ideally should have done.)