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In 1362 Pope Urban V tried to ban them completely - and in 1463 the UK Parliament under Edward IV passed a sumptuary law to stop anyone lower in rank than lord to wear shoes longer than two inches in the points.

The novel almost dares readers to object to its inwardness — “It’s like there’s a new sumptuary law against introspection,” one of the four complains — but its tender, psychologically precise prose feels like a bulwark against the exposure it takes for a subject.

“It’s like there’s a new sumptuary law against introspection.”

“It’s like there’s a sumptuary law against introspection.”

The French have a history of imposing this 21st-century equivalent of medieval sumptuary law on other items of Muslim dress.