Real stories · The 'it'll blow over' jacket

Malcolm trusts 'it'll blow over' more than any forecast — now there's a jacket for that

A jacket for every 'it'll blow over' walk — that's what I finally found for Malcolm. I'm 67, he's 68, and he has never once believed a weather forecast. 'It'll blow over,' he announces, leaving with Winnie under a sky the colour of wet slate, and forty minutes later a shower ambushes him at the far end of the river path, as it has for thirty years.

What I wanted was a jacket light enough that he'd actually take it — his objection to proper coats being that they're 'too much jacket' for a dog walk.

Then I found the Durvane from a British label called York Boutique — a men's outdoor jacket in plain black with a solid zip, a neat stand collar and a hood that adjusts. It looks like something he'd have chosen himself, which with Malcolm is half the battle. There's blue, white and green as well.

The lightness is the whole trick. It weighs next to nothing and doesn't feel like a coat — which is why it now simply goes on for every walk, no negotiation — yet it shields him from the sudden shower and the sharp wind along the river, with the hood up and adjusted before the first drops get serious. Easy over a jumper, easy in the car, and it lives on the hook by Winnie's lead.

Light enough that he actually keeps it on, with a hood ready for the shower he swore wasn't coming — the ambush rain has stopped being an event in this house.

It was £34.95, half the usual £70 — less than one soaking's worth of grumbling, frankly. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery, though I already knew it wasn't coming back.

It has since done a week of Winnie's walks, two ambush showers and one genuinely horizontal Tuesday, and Malcolm has come home dry-shouldered and insufferable every single time. He still says 'it'll blow over'. Now he zips the jacket while he says it.

If your house also contains a man at war with the forecast, do have a look. The Durvane is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 200 customers, it comes in black, blue, white and green, in sizes M to 5XL — and with the season turning, the black goes first.