Some time ago, I was out walking when I saw a group of female ‘friends’ I’d met when I first moved to a small village in Oxfordshire. We’d all been to each other’s social gatherings over the years. We’d done nursery school as co-parents. We’d decorated the church, showed up at Christmas fetes, helped dress each other’s children in fancy dress for school parties. We’d bonded over the usual things — husbands, work, dogs, children. We’d done sponsored walks together and even been away for a weekend to a spa.