I was sitting on the train the other day and on the other side of the carriage a couple of seats away and facing me was a rather foxy woman of perhaps 45 years. She sat next to a lad who was perhaps 25 and looked sufficiently like the woman that I am confident that he was her son, rather than her young lover. They spoke in French and she was reading a booklet in English with a title something like "50 ways to look better naked". I could see enough to notice that it contained pictures although I am too short sighted to see what the pictures were.
The woman showed the odd picture to her son and chatted to him about it in French. I know enough French to know that they were not discussing the weather, Brexit or the forthcoming test series. I find it hard to think that I would read such a book at all, and certainly not in public, and impossible to think that I would read it while sitting next to my daughter and to discuss it with her.
Is this because I am British and we Brits have historically not discussed matters such as nudity or sex in public, well certainly not in polite circles? Or is it because having been brought up by a man who regards the 1870s as the good old days, i am just an old fart? Do younger folks in Britain today, or those who are in tune with younger folk, have such conversations?
I do not know but am happy to take guidance from you dear readers.