It is the happiest-looking bag I have ever owned

The whole bag is worked as a little flower-power camper van. A front with a peace sign on the nose, rows of sunset-coloured windows down each side, white daisies across the panels, and trees or a sunset around the back depending which one you take. All of it quilted, with a texture you can feel, so it reads as something made rather than something printed.

I have carried sensible bags my whole life. Nobody ever said a word about one of them. This one gets asked about everywhere it goes.

It takes a proper weekend

This is the one I did not believe from the photographs. It is a genuinely roomy bag. A couple of outfits, shoes, a towel and a wash bag all go in, and the opening runs the length of the top so it closes without any of that kneeling-on-the-bag business the old holdall demanded. The inside is one open space, so everything sits where you put it and you can see the lot at a glance.

It carries whichever way suits you

This is the one my shoulder is most grateful for. There are two quilted handles over the top for carrying it in your hand, and an adjustable strap besides, so you can set it to whatever length suits you and let it ride on your shoulder when your hands are full of keys and a coat. At our age you do not want a bag that offers you one way of lugging it. This one lets you choose, and I choose differently nearly every trip.

The quilting is the clever part

Soft on the outside, so it goes into an overhead bin or under a seat without an argument. And the padding faces inward as well, so what you put in travels behind a quilted wall instead of one thin layer of nylon. That is the part you do not notice until the trip your reading glasses survive.

There is a size for every sort of trip

It comes in two. The 16 by 8 by 8 inch one is the go-anywhere size, right for a night away, the gym, or a roomy bag at your feet. The 18 by 9 by 9 is taller and wider all round and takes two or three days of packing with room to spare.

I have the bigger one, because in all my years of going away I have never once wished a weekend bag were smaller. We print both sets of measurements plainly, so you are not guessing.

A cheerful bag gets you out of the door

The strange one. I go away more now. When the bag was a black holdall, packing was a chore I put off and the weekend that never quite got planned stayed unplanned. Now the bag sits on the shelf looking like a holiday already booked, and somehow the weekends get made. My husband says a bag cannot make you travel more. My husband has also carried it to his mother's twice this season, so I rest my case.