Sitting at a window table in Clerkenwell’s trendy Moro restaurant, I am looking out for my lunch companion, the artist Grayson Perry. I am expecting him in jeans and a jumper. As an art-world insider warned me, in a consolatory tone: “He will probably just come as Grayson. He only comes as Claire for special occasions.”

Perry has made his name as one of Britain’s leading contemporary artists. His beautiful hand-made pots are embellished with disturbing or cheeky imagery. But he is also known for his transvestism; he famously collected the Turner Prize he was awarded in 2003 dressed as “Claire”, his girlish alter ego.