And as it turns out, Nicole, he’s a pretty impressive artist in his own right.

Do you ever wonder about such things? The sheer serendipity of things?

When we were living on Bougainville Island in PNG, a Scottish family moved next door to us, with a little boy called Alistair. My husband is also Alistair, so when she would initially call for her son, we would react.

When we eventually got talking, I discovered, not only that she was from a tiny village next to mine, but also that she used to catch the school bus with me. Though I didn’t know her, our mothers knew each other well.