I’m about to embark on the most stressful part of packing for a summer holiday: don’t worry, this is no accursed bikini essay (does it still fit? Are my legs too white? ); nor is it the agony of weighing the relative merits of carrying three paperbacks versus a pair of wedge sandals; rather it is the annual angst-ridden choice of sunscreen.

Which SPF? How many bottles? Spray, cream or lotion? Chemical or mineral? Such questions are bad enough, but this year the ante has been upped due to new European Union labelling regulations that categorise sun cream protection as “low”, “medium”, “high” and “very high”. Discovering that my trusted Lancôme SPF15, which I apply carefully, liberally and regularly in blissful confidence, is regarded as merely “medium” has put me in a spin. Wouldn’t it make more sense to categorise products as: “sunny weekend in London”; “blisteringly hot fortnight in Ibiza”; and “off season, slightly-cloudy-but-still-warm Caribbean”? This surely is a more realistic, and useful, representation of how we ascertain our sunscreen needs.