When I was in primary school people would tell my mother I had ‘piano-playing fingers’. Despite this I don’t think anyone would regard my hands as being particularly attractive – especially now that my fingers have become bent, and misshapen. True, in my younger days I could stretch out my long slim fingers … there was never the money for piano lessons, yet at least the slimness of my hands meant that the efforts of boys trying to ‘bone crush’ my hands were in vain!

I used to envy friends whose hands were soft-skinned and ended in well-shaped, carefully manicured nails. Such was the depth of these feelings that my grandparents gave me a beautiful manicure set for my twelfth birthday. I loved it and used it regularly to keep my nails clean and short: long, varnished nails have never suited me.

Mine are capable hands; strong hands; working hands…