Real stories · The heels I got back at 67

I gave up heels somewhere around 2015 — this week they came back, warm and steady

Warm boots with a proper heel I can actually walk in — I'd stopped believing those existed somewhere around 2015. That's roughly when I quietly gave up heels: not because I stopped liking the inch of height and the way it straightens your back, but because thin heels and York's cobbles had become a genuinely bad combination.

What I wanted, though I'd stopped saying it out loud, was the height back — without the wobble and without cold feet.

Then I found the Marvielleenor from a British label called York Boutique — brown PU leather ankle boots with a soft knitted fold-over cuff finished with a little pearl charm, a decorative laced front, and the important part: a proper chunky block heel on a sturdy grippy sole. There's a black pair as well.

The heel is the trick. It's wide and square, so it plants itself with every step instead of asking you to balance on it — which is why I can do the full market loop, cobbles included, and feel taller the whole way rather than nervous. Inside there's a soft plush lining that makes cold pavements someone else's problem, the cushioned footbed is kind over a morning, and the side zip means no wrestling — they're on and off in a moment.

A proper chunky heel that plants itself instead of wobbling, a plush warm lining, and a knitted cuff with a little pearl — my inch of height back, without a single nervous step on the cobbles.

They were £39.95 — sitting exactly on the line where I usually talk myself out of things — until I counted what I'd spent over the years on flat boots I didn't love because they were 'sensible'. Half the usual £80, a fortnight to send them back, free delivery. The line moved.

They have since done a café lunch with Sandra and two market mornings, and at the lunch Sandra looked down, then up, and said 'you're wearing HEELS' loudly enough for the next table to check. I sat a little straighter. I'd forgotten how much I'd missed that.

If you also filed heels under 'former life', do have a look. The Marvielleenor is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 210 women, it comes in brown and black, in sizes 2.5 to 8.5 — and at half price the brown goes exactly as fast as you'd expect.