Maddy and I had always slept naked, ever since that first desperately nervous night of our honeymoon, even though we had known each other all our lives.

Ha! You, Timothy, my very helpful grandson, can scoff at your Grammies’ innocence. But that is how it was then, for good girls and a respectable boy who feared the wrath of God, Dad and Maddy’s Dad, and not necessarily in that order.

You never saw them much, but we both had much older siblings because we were both the products of our Dads being demobbed after six years away fighting the war and our Mums eagerly awaiting their return. Maddy was the eldest of the two of us by four weeks and, the precocious force of nature she was, she always took charge. I didn’t mind. She took the lead in everything and I was grateful to be along with her for the ride.

It was just about the Swinging Sixties when we pair of near neighbours and forever best friends, who had walked together to and from school for years and years until we were about 14 and decided to detour through the woods and try out kissing for the first time.

I suppose our hormones were starting to stir by then and we had started sneaking in to see what were “A” classified films at the pictures in town without our parents for the first time and we were seeing Hollywood actors and actresses kissing and acting as lovers. Only acting of course.