Constance craving

On a recent trip to Yorkshire, I found my new favourite ever name written in a second-hand book.

I'm not sure whether she sounds more like a stern governess with a mania for corporal punishment, or a kindly granny who runs a sweet shop and gives out free treats to well-mannered children, believing that tooth decay is something that only afflicts naughty children and has no direct correlation with sugar.

Or perhaps she was a young hipster cursing her family for giving her a nice, sensible name like Constance in the wild abandon of the late 60s?

Whoever she was, her signature relegates Wendy Bodger, who I discovered in a book in a hotel bedroom in Norfolk a couple of years ago, to second place on the great-names-in-old-books podium.

You can tell that Wendy is from Norfolk by her phonetic attempt to spell the word 'wrote'. 'Root' is closer to the truly authentic pronunciation though, I would say. Just call me Professor Higgins.