I have been ill. I am better and it is nothing serious. But the battery of seemingly futuristic tests for which I got lined up, along with symptoms that were temporarily debilitating, triggered an interior spiral of obsessive worrying that I suspect is pretty common for people facing health difficulties. I tried to identify mistakes I had made – in diet and lifestyle particularly – that could be blamed for causing these problems.

Easy villains are comforting. There have been some hate groups in the news recently and they certainly qualify as easy villains. I would never join one of those groups and I’m delighted to condemn them in the strongest possible terms. Further, I’m pleased to be part of a conversation about how best to combat racism and marginalise it in our society.