It was a revelation when my girlfriend patiently and kindly explained to me that I was a geek.

I was obviously surprised: my love of sci-fi, spending time in libraries, getting excited about physics, weren’t these things cool? I wanted clarification because I’m a bit self obsessed, “Okay, fine.” I allowed, “But I’m King of the geeks right?!”

We live in Hackney, which is in East London. We have this regular walk we do from our house, through London Fields park, down Borough Market, through a flower market and into Spitalfields (another market).

It’s a nice walk. Give me a shout if you’re in the neighbourhood and we’ll do it together.

For those of you who don’t know or haven’t been to London this area is a vibrant, young and fashionable place to be (or at least, it is since we moved there).

I call the route we walk the ‘Catwalk Mile’. Everybody attempts to outdo each other in clothing craziness. Jeans pulled up around their chests, odd shoes (or no shoes), hats of all shapes and sizes, pins and badges - anything goes.

Interestingly more and more of these charity shop fashionista’s are dressing as bookish librarian types. The increase in people wearing cord trousers with a high waistline, thick rimmed plastic glasses and cardigans means that the Catwalk Mile is starting to feel like a trip to the local library. (Apologies if I’ve just offended every librarian on the planet).

The good news from all of this is that being a Geek really is cool again - look at Napoleon Dynamite. If you’ve been sitting in a dark room reading by a dim light, open the curtains and go outside! Times have changed! As you sit proudly with a well-thumbed copy of your favourite paperback, you’ll be recognised for the style icon and trend setter you really are.