Real stories · The coat for weather that can't make up its mind

English weather can't make up its mind — this is the coat that stopped me caring

The coat for weather that can't make up its mind — that's what this one is. I'm 67, and our dog Winnie does not check the forecast. Rain, drizzle, that fine wet mist that isn't officially anything: she wants her walk, and for years that walk was me in a cagoule fighting an umbrella that wanted to leave.

What I wanted was one coat that made the forecast irrelevant — without making me look like I was off up a mountain.

Then I found the Serelithia from a British label called York Boutique — a hooded trench coat, and I chose the light grey, which is soft and goes with everything and doesn't show every splash.

It solves the weather in three moves. The hood is a proper one — up in a second, stays up in wind, which is why the umbrella has been retired — and the fabric shrugs off drizzle and light rain, so the fine wet mist simply stops mattering. The cut is roomy and oversized, so a jumper goes underneath without anything straining, and the length covers the knees, which is exactly the part of you that gets soaked in a cagoule. The cuffs are elasticated too, so no wind gets up the sleeves. And because it's cut like a trench rather than a hiking jacket, you can walk straight from the muddy path into the café without apologising.

A proper hood instead of a losing fight with an umbrella, an oversized cut that takes a jumper underneath without straining, and a length that keeps the knees dry — the forecast has stopped being my problem.

It now lives on the coat stand by the door and has done every walk since — including the one where the heavens properly opened at the far end of the field, and I arrived home dry from the knees up and rather smug. My neighbour, wringing out her hood, asked where it was from.

It was £34.98 in the sale, half the usual £70 — and I'd checked I could send it back if it swamped me, which you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free. It comes in eight colours and in sizes UK 8/10 all the way to 22/24.

If your dog also refuses to check the forecast, do treat yourself to a look. The Serelithia is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 250 women, it's £34.98 in the sale instead of £70 — half price — and the middle sizes always seem to go first.