"It's been imprinted in us to think of the summer as the end of one chapter and September as the beginning of another, and that's difficult to change.

"But it's a good thing - if we all floated around in that relaxed holiday state all the time, first, we would be less productive, and second, we wouldn't enjoy the holiday so much because there wouldn't be a contrast."

Dr Tanya Byron, clinical psychologist and Times columnist