A woman in mid-life still regularly finds herself being asked for proof of age in pubs and supermarkets, due to what commentators have termed “the mysterious autistic baby-face phenomenon”.

Julie Walker, 40, who was born before the fall of the Berlin Wall, is pivoting from flattered to mystified. “It’s bizarre,” she said. “I have a child at secondary school and varicose veins. I’m pretty sure my varicose veins would be at secondary school, if veins went to school.”

“My hair is grey. All right, it’s purple – but it’s grey underneath the purple.”

“The secret to youthful-looking skin isn’t expensive creams or cosmetic surgery,” she explained. “Apparently it’s four hours’ sleep and a diet of mostly Kit-Kats.”

Walker expressed frustration with the fact that staff in her local supermarket had recently refused to sell her antihistamines for the exciting new allergies she’s developed in the past decade, glue for a craft project, and Lemsip, adding: “I was going to drink it on a park bench with my mates.”

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