CHATTING to a colleague of a similar age, we found we had something in common.

Not where we lived, went to school or holidayed, but something we share with vast swathes of the population.

We both find it hard to put on our socks.

My colleague described how difficult he found reaching his feet, never mind having to insert them into a small fabric receptacle, while I recounted my morning ritual of sitting on the edge of the bath or bed (preferably bath with its stable surface, as even a slight mattress movement can have me keeling over), leaning forward and easing each sock over the toes.

It is only in the past couple of years that I have begun to find this daily ritual problematic. Having always been fairly fit and active, I used to think nothing of it. I’d whip socks on and off in the blink of an eye. On, off, on, off, no problem.

Tights too posed no difficulty, yet they now possibly cause me even more angst, having to unfurl them along the leg. This, I find, is only doable when sitting down.

The subject is explored by the barrister, playwright and author, the late John Mortimer, who, in his memoir Summer of a Dormouse, ponders the difficulties of putting on socks.

‘Can you imagine having to call your wife or daughter to help you put on a pair of socks?’ he asks.

A well-wisher sent him a special contraption, a Soxon, to perform this daily task, but he didn’t take to it.

Doubting the existence of such things, I had a quick look on Amazon and was amazed to find quite a variety of so-called ‘sock pullers’ including the Easy Pull Sock Aid that, to be honest, looks way too complicated.

After a Bank Holiday bout of DIY, we have rather a lot of nuts, bolts and bits of scrap lying around at home and I rather fancy I could invent something myself. If Wallace & Gromit can do it...

Mortimer was 77 when he wrote about his sock issues. Worryingly, I am more than 20 years his junior. I am also reasonably active, which makes me deeply sympathetic to those among us who have disabilities or medical conditions that render getting dressed at all a difficult, painful process.

The problems I am experiencing are simply a result of ageing, of getting creaky: little spasms of pain from within my knees, dull aches in the lower back and, occasionally - if I have been standing for a while - a mild throbbing in the thigh.

As people keep telling me, it is only going to get worse. Thank goodness sock-free summer is on its way.