LAURA CARTLEDGE: You are never too old for a bit of child’s play

Not the most inventive name, I know, but as soon as I saw him, I thought ‘he wants to be technicolour’ – I could just tell.

Those who know me won’t be surprised to learn I am flirting with the ‘adult colouring book’ trend.

The use of the word ‘adult’ there is as essential as it is risky.

It is a way of making it an acceptable hobby for those who may not have picked up a crayon or felt-tip in a decade or two or more.

But let me assure you, it isn’t meant in the red light kind of way.

Instead, subject matters range from the royals – with ‘Colour in Kate’ among the titles – to comic book classics and iconic cityscapes.

My first venture, as you can probably tell, has a nature theme to it.

Only with a bit of a rainbow twist now. If you think the badger is bad – you should see psychedelic squirrel.

I did try to resist it.

I do still have a collection of crochet coasters that need to be made into a blanket.

But I’d begun to lose count of the number of times I had walked up to the shelves of books, flicked through the options and left again.

The reality of being a home-owner played a big part, too.

Who has time to colour when the garden needs weeding, dinner needs cooking and consuming and every inch of the property needs redecorating?

I do.

Not much time, mind, but I am grabbing snippets when I can.

When the football is on, when I’ve productively reshuffled as many of the remaining boxes as I can – to the point I am really just moving them from one slowly-decreasing pile to another.

It has already got to the point where I am using colouring as a reward.

I have the kind of conversations in my head that you hear exasperated parents having with their child.