Hats off to hats...

Call me predictable, old-fashioned and irascible (which I occasionally am) if you will, but I've always loved hats. Nothing to do with my beloved shiny pate - more, methinks, to do with their connection to times gone by and a memory of my grandfather, who nearly always wore a hat, like most men of his generation.

I've been wearing 'real' hats for many years. I think I started as a tax collector in London in the 80s. The publicity shots for my first novel, Ganglands, saw me in a black trilby looking fresh-faced and eager.

Maybe, I thought, it's time for a new hat. My old one seems to have shrunk and my son is now using it as a cowboy hat... just like I did, I'm reliably told, as a lad.

I'm tired of baseball caps and army styled caps, though I still have a penchant for flat caps...

Village Hats in the UK, have just delivered my order... and I'm back in hat business.