“Do you like opera, miss?” is a question I was frequently asked by children in school whenever I put any classical music on for them to listen to. My usual answer was “Actually I don’t very much and anyway I am not asking you to listen to opera music.”

And it’s true – I don’t like opera music very much, but there are of course exceptions. I have discovered over the years that it pays to do some homework before you go.

When I was 21 I had my appendix out on New Year’s Day in St George’s hospital, Knightsbridge. Very glamorous outside, a workhouse inside. 40 women to a ward, a strict regime, and they kept me in for almost a week. No one worried about hospital bugs then. If you were a woman, it didn’t matter what was wrong with you – cancer, appendix, hymen resewing, hysterectomy (…