Time was when you needed lank hair, creased clothes and tarantula armpits to prove your commitment to the left-wing cause. As a young student radical I never really got the look - too well scrubbed, according to one friend. And I was. A long soak has always been a favourite luxury.
For the perfect bath, make sure the phone is switched off - there's nothing worse than having to jump out dripping. Let the world wait.
Some people swear by a glass of wine in the bath, but that seems to me as unfortunate a match as wine and poached eggs on toast. No, as you relax amid the bubbles it has to be a cup of tea.
And as to those bubbles - well, you can pay an awful lot: J-P Gaultier's Le Bain (£19) is frothy and smells refreshing, but at that price verges on one of life's bigger luxuries. Clarin's Bain aux Plantes Relax (£15) is slightly cheaper and does have a real plant-extract sort of smell, as well as good bubbles. But there's plenty to choose from in the under-a-fiver range: Badedas (£3) does an acceptable revitalising bath gelee; the Sanctuary's Bath Essence (£3.50) is low on bubbles but has a nice, not too overpowering fragrance, as does Oil of Ulay's Moisturising Bathwash (£3.50). A word of warning: avoid Radox's new range - Citrus Tonic with Marjoram, Time Out with Lavender, etc. They give you a fine enough bath, but the scents are far from subtle.
Read a colour supplement or a women's magazine, though it requires a certain dexterity not to get the whole thing sodden. Finally, the towel: most of us get by with an ancient, slightly faded thing. Invest in a white, fluffy, just-out-of-a-posh-hotel-bathroom kind of towel - and keep it for your special long soaks.
