Every now and again, something utterly incongruous captures the zeitgeist. A cultural obsession so bizarre that you don’t know where it came from, or what it really means but, whether you like it or not, you are aware of its existence – conscious that it is the must-have, must-do thing of the moment. Last summer, it was unicorns – you couldn’t move for unicorn slippers, phone cases, prints. No hen weekend was complete without a series of photos posted on Instagram of grown women perched awkwardly on inflatable unicorn pool toys. There is no knowing which way the wind will blow next, but right now, you may be aware that we are living through the age of the mermaid.

On Wednesday, a bizarre story hit the headlines. An 18-year-old girl from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, was asked to refrain from swimming up and down the lanes of her local swimming pool wearing a large shimmering tail. You might imagine that Mermaid Aries (real name: Leia Trigger) was some harmless but ultimately delusional teenager who genuinely believed she was a mermaid – a sign millennials had well and truly lost the plot. But, in fact, mermaids are no longer just the stuff of rather dated films starring Daryl Hannah, they have reentered our cultural landscape.