Real stories · Wearing the heating

Malcolm guards the thermostat like a museum piece — so I've started wearing the heating

Warm at home without touching the thermostat — that's what this jacket does. I'm 67, Malcolm is 68, and in this house the thermostat is guarded like an exhibit: looked at often, touched never. 'Put a jumper on,' says the curator, from under a blanket. And from October to April, the kitchen of a morning is genuinely parky.

What I wanted was warmth I could put on, since I clearly wasn't allowed to turn it on.

Then I found the Aurelithen from a British label called York Boutique — a zip-up fleece jacket in soft blue, deep-piled and cosy, with a pale fleece-lined hood and proper pockets. I chose the blue; there's green, brown and pink as well.

The fleece does what the radiators won't. It's deep and soft and warm the moment the zip goes up — which is why the eighteen-degree kitchen has simply stopped being a hardship — and it's breathable with it, so I'm never clammy indoors. The lined hood goes up for the bins, the washing line and Winnie's garden patrol, and the relaxed fit sits happily over whatever I'm already wearing.

Deep soft fleece with a lined hood, warm the moment the zip goes up — which is why the eighteen-degree kitchen has stopped being a hardship, and the thermostat remains a museum piece.

It was £39.95, which is where I usually pause — except that's roughly what a single month of turning the heating up costs in this house, and unlike the heating, this I get to keep. Half the usual £80, a fortnight to send it back, free delivery. The curator approved instantly.

It has since done every morning for a fortnight, three washing lines, and one entire Sunday of not being taken off, and Malcolm — a man who does not feel the cold, officially — has asked, too casually, whether it comes 'in a man's sort of colour'. It comes in brown, Malcolm.

If your thermostat is also a museum piece, do have a look. The Aurelithen is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 240 women, it comes in blue, green, brown and pink, in sizes M to 3XL — and at half price the blue goes first.