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The article that started it all was not even on the front page, but was just a filler on page 5, between an advertisement for the Patricia Brixie Dancing School and a report on the AGM of the Crofton North Liberals. It concerned the finding of a recent study into parthenogenesis in sea urchins, frogs and rabbits, which concluded that there was no reason it should not be possible in humans. This dusty paragraph might have been overlooked by most readers of the North Kent Echo were it not for the melodramatic headline ‘Men No Longer Needed for Reproduction!’

The result was an unusually large postbag of mostly indignant letters, not just from men. One wounded correspondent, Mrs Beryl Diplock of St Paul’s Cray, deplored the articles sentiments as dangerous and unchristian. More than one female reader pointed out that such a proposition was liable to give slippery men an excuse to wriggle out of their responsibilities.

There was one letter, however, that stood out from all the rest. It was from a Mrs Gretchen Tilbery of 7 Burdett Road, Sidcup, and read simply:

Dear Editor,

I was interested to read your article ‘Men No Longer Needed for Reproduction’ in last week’s paper. I have always believed that my own daughter (now ten) to have been born without the involvement of any man. If you would like to know more information you may write to me at the above address.

The next editorial meeting – usually a dull affair involving the planning and distribution of duties for the week and a post-mortem of the errors and oversights in the previous issue – was livelier than it had been in some time.