Despite a few exceptionally enjoyable ones that I can recall, I’ve long had a horror of holidays. For a start, as a writer, I carry my work around in my head and thus can’t walk away and forget about it.

Then there’s the equally inescapable fact that, as we freelancers aren’t entitled to holiday pay, we personally foot the bill for every day we take off. And finally, though I feel kind of pathetic that I have in all honesty to admit to this, I find it almost impossible to relax.