The treatment for lice has improved since our day, but their presence is no less horrifying

My daughter hadn’t been in nursery for an hour when the phone call came. My darling child, I was informed, had head lice, and I was to collect her at once.

At pickup, they pointed at her head and told me they’d seen something ‘wriggling’. Pathetically, I examined her scalp and insisted I couldn’t see anything. This was my first experience of head lice since childhood, so I will admit to being embarrassed.