I'm right behind you darling!

The husband seems to be one of the few men left in London who still wears a suit to work most days. To be honest, he prefers it that way as there’s less scope for sartorial disaster if all you’ve got to do each morning is make sure that your tie doesn’t clash with your shirt. That being said, it does make for a large and colourful pile of Thomas Pink/Austin Reed/TM Lewin heavy cotton, double cuff, pain in the neck to iron work shirts at the end of each week. And so, for as many years as I can remember, he has been having his shirts laundered at the dry cleaners each week. Since our house move, he’s swapped to a new place and never tires of telling us what a good service they offer and how impressive and convenient it is that they can turn around his laundry on the same day.

Good for them, I think to myself. And good for the husband. But that’s about as much thought as I’ve ever given to his laundry arrangements. Until very recently, when I found myself sitting in traffic outside the aforementioned Dry Cleaners and saw the huge poster in their window advertising the shirt service. It features a large image of a horrified looking woman with a caption that asks “Too busy to wash and iron your husband’s shirts?”

Far be it from me to get all feminist, but what is this - the 1950s? Why isn’t the picture of a man who is too busy to wash and iron his own shirts? Or why isn’t the woman looking horrified because she’s been too busy to wash her own shirts (women can wear shirt to work too!) Or perhaps a picture of a horrified man who’s been too busy to launder the shirts of his civil partner!? You get my point.

I ranted to my husband about this for quite a while. He nodded in all the right places and made noises of agreement with my outrage. And so, emboldened by his supportive condemnation of this sexist travesty, I declared that I planned to phone the Dry Cleaners and complain. “Good idea,” he said. “But would you mind not using your married name because I really do like the way they do my shirts and I don’t want to be barred!”