Real stories · The jacket Malcolm swears he never needed

Malcolm 'doesn't feel the cold' — he's worn this jacket every day since it arrived

The warm jacket Malcolm swears he never needed — he's worn it every single day for a week. I'm 67, Malcolm is 68, and he is one of those men who 'doesn't feel the cold'. He announces this on the doorstep in January, arms crossed, visibly shivering, before taking Winnie out in a jacket with all the insulation of a bin bag.

What I wanted was to get some proper warmth onto that man without triggering the pride.

Then I found the Tharvex from a British label called York Boutique — a rugged men's jacket in worn brown leather-look, with a deep plush pile lining, a front zip and a neat stand collar. It looks like something a man chose for himself, which matters enormously. There's a black as well.

The lining is the whole argument. It's a thick, soft insulated pile that traps the warmth the moment the zip goes up — which is why the doorstep shivering has quietly stopped — and the rugged worn-leather look means it reads as character, not as being fussed over by your wife. It's structured without being stiff, and the stand collar keeps the wind off the back of his neck on the riverbank.

Warm the second it's zipped, rugged enough that he doesn't feel fussed over, and lined with a deep plush pile — the shivering has stopped, though officially it never happened.

It was £49.95 — half the usual £100 — and the arithmetic of a man who will wear exactly one jacket from October to March, every single day, twice a day with the dog, comes out at pennies a wear. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery settled the rest.

It has since done a week of Winnie walks, the tip run and one pub lunch, where a man at the bar asked him where the jacket was from. Malcolm, who did not know, said 'my wife knows' with what I can only describe as enormous smugness. He still doesn't feel the cold, officially. He also hasn't taken it off.

If your house also contains a man who is never cold and always shivering, do have a look. The Tharvex is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 180 customers, it comes in brown and black, in sizes XS to 2XL — and with the first frost coming, the warm ones go first.