The photos showed a slim woman with short platinum-blonde hair between two vibrant-looking hippie types. Pete, with a goatee beard and navy scarf, tied bandana-style around his head, looked like an old rock star, Marcia, with her waves of long black hair, was in a red kaftan and amber beads, his rock-chick companion. I was wearing a long black linen dress, 1930s Prada sunglasses, a single, long rope of silver that matched my earrings, and had painted my lips bright red. It was a style Marcia had come up with when my brown hair had begun to grow grey in my mid-forties. ‘Think Annie Lennox 1980 – spike it up at the front a bit,’ she’d told me, ‘add a slash of bright lipstick, then go for plain colours with your clothes and you’ll be seen as cool and chic, not middle-aged. With your fine bone structure, you could take it.’ I’d taken her advice, had my hair cut, and stuck to black, navy or white clothing ever since.

We’d planned the trip to India for months, the holiday of a lifetime to celebrate our birthdays. We had agreed no gifts until the end of the journey, then we’d all surprise each other with something. So far on our travels, we’d had a chill-out week on white sands by the sea in Kerala, and drifted peacefully on rice boats through palm-tree-lined canals in Alleppey (the Venice of the East). We’d done the Golden Triangle: Delhi, insanely busy with traffic, where we’d had a near-death experience in a tuk-tuk; Agra where we saw the Taj Mahal before the crowds arrived, its iridescent white marble glowing rose pink in the dawn light; Jaipur, where camels, elephants, pigs, cats, dogs and chickens could be seen strolling along the streets, narrowly missed by mopeds sometimes carrying five or six people. Everywhere we’d been was photo-worthy: women in jewel-coloured saris on bicycles; big-eyed children waving or begging from the side of the road; honey-stoned temples with intricate carvings on pillars and arches; market stalls overflowing with fabrics, pashminas, jewellery, fruits and spices; lorries painted bright yellow, red and green, strewn with garlands of flowers and tinsel. I loved India and, although I’d been before on short trips buying jewellery and trinkets for my shop back in the UK, the vibrancy and beauty never ceased to impress and inspire me.