LAUREN BRAVO: How I finally found a hobby that lets me sit down with a cuppa

I didn’t try on purpose to get one – in fact, I’ve always been sort of hobby-devoid, believing them the preserve of children or people who had lost their TV remote.

But it just sprung up suddenly of its own accord one day, like mildew in the bathroom. My new hobby is board games. Not Monopoly, which I fell out of love with the day I discovered the rest of the world doesn’t play the Bravo family way, gently waiting three hours till you land on your favourite colour, then wandering off to make a cup of tea and never returning.

The real Monopoly is an ugly game, exposing everybody’s secret avarice and pedantry.

No, the games that have been bringing a flush to my cheeks on these ever-shortening autumn evenings are distinctly less glamorous and a lot more, shall we say, nerd-adjacent.

There’s Bananagrams, which is like Scrabble for people with anger management issues.