Real stories · The jacket for British in-between weather

The soft hooded jacket that finally suits British weather — light enough for August, hooded for the inevitable

A light jacket for the eight months of British in-between weather — too warm for a coat, too grey to go without — that's the gap in my wardrobe I'd been improvising around for years. I'm 67, and I walk Winnie twice a day whatever the sky is doing. My winter coat turns those walks into a sauna from April onwards, and a cardigan is no match for the drizzle that starts the moment we're furthest from home. So I'd stand in the hall every morning having the same tedious negotiation with the weather.

What I wanted was one light layer that settled it: soft, not bulky, warm enough for a fresh morning, with a hood for when the forecast lies.

Then I found the Evelisse from a British label called York Boutique — a casual hooded drawstring jacket, and I chose the soft apricot, which is a gentler colour than yet another navy.

It has solved the hallway negotiation completely. The fabric is light and breathable, which is why it works for our whole strange climate — it takes the edge off a fresh morning without cooking me by the second lap of the park, and it layers over a t-shirt or under a bigger coat when winter actually arrives. The hood has a drawstring so it stays up in wind instead of flapping off the back of my head, and the whole thing is soft as a cardigan but looks considerably more deliberate. It washes well and dries overnight on a hanger.

Light enough that I'm not roasting by the second lap of the park, soft as a cardigan, and there's a hood for when the sky changes its mind. It lives by the front door now.

Winnie now associates the sound of it coming off the hook with walkies, which tells you how often it's worn. My daughter borrowed it when she visited and I had to ask for it back twice. I'd checked before ordering that I could send it back if the colour didn't suit — you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free — so there was nothing lost by trying. It comes in five colours and in sizes UK 8/10 to 16/18.

It was £29.95 in the summer sale, half what it usually is, which for the layer I wear more than anything else I own is very good going.

If you're also having the same negotiation with the hallway coat hooks every morning, do treat yourself to a look. The Evelisse is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 300 women, it's £29.95 in the summer sale instead of £60 — half price — and the middle sizes always seem to go first.