Or so the advertising bods at the British High Street bastion of retailing would have you believe. Marks & Spencer (fondly known as M&S) is as British as a cup of tea, as old as my knees feel, a place of comfort for women of a certain age who know what they like and like what they know. Some might say it’s dependably dull or, as my 72-year-old mother would say, perfectly British. [Britain’s Marks & Spencer, trading since 1884 — the same year construction began on the Statue of Liberty.] M&S is also the UK market leader in bras and knickers. If you don’t buy your underwear from M&S, you are a woman of poor standing in my mother’s eyes. And when my own daughters needed their first bras, where else would instinct lead us than Marks & Spencer?