Exciting news from my father’s cousin in Canada. ‘You asked about our grandfather, there is much to tell,’ he writes.

‘You may be surprised to know that George’s mother was a gypsy. So it seems that we have some gypsy blood coursing through our veins.’

As I read the email, which my father had forwarded to me, I shouted at the builder boyfriend: ‘I knew it! You’re not the only gypsy in this household!’

He was outside checking the oil in my car, and shouted back to say he didn’t know what I was on about this time.