That first meeting, at a wine bar a stone’s throw from my office, was as invigorating as that total body conditioning class. In the past two years we’ve shared ideas, read each other’s work and offered advice. We’ve worked through difficult plot points together, and celebrated with endless bottles of fizz when one, then two, then all three of us got book deals. Now there are five of us in the group, and I’m not being sentimental when I say my writing is what it is because of them.

From NCT classes to book clubs, there lies a unique power in female groups. Studies have shown that women participate more actively and feel less anxious when they are able to work in small groups or ‘microenvironments’ that are mostly female. And with statistics revealing that over nine million people in the UK are always or often lonely, joining a group, whether it’s aqua fit, a coffee morning or a local committee, can go a long way towards combating that. Nobody likes to feel like the new girl, but you’re only the new girl once.

Finding a shared passion with strangers can be immensely refreshing – there’s no history, no in-jokes, and you don’t have to fall into your usual trope of characteristics: the funny friend, the caring daughter. There is comfort and joy in being part of a collective, in finding your tribe and making new friends. In practising your right hook with the lady from the card shop.

In celebration of the joy of female groups