PHOTOGRAPH: MARK HARRISON. HAIR AND MAKE-UP: CAROLINE PIASECKI. STYLIST: KATE ANYA BARBOUR
When I was younger, I believed true love was shown with big romantic gestures. I wanted hot-air balloon rides and surprise trips, songs penned about me and declarations of love sky-written for all to see. Unsurprisingly, none of that materialised and, even though I told myself the fairy tale wasn’t real, I realise part of me had been hoping that maybe, just maybe, it might happen anyway.
I can’t be entirely blamed for this – my mates are partial to grand gestures, and I have been called on to sneak into flats to hang ‘welcome home’ banners for returning loved ones, to bake 100 brownies so they could be shaped into ‘I love you’ and, on one occasion, to deliver my friend in a hamper with a bow on it to her beloved’s house.