“What did you get?” my father asked. “99 per cent” I said carelessly, expecting praise for coming top. “Oh dear,” he said. “So close. What a shame. But you passed, that’s the main thing.”

I was ten when I first learned the meaning of the phrase ‘damning with faint praise’, but it’s remained with me and helped to fire the determination to try and do a better job of supporting others than my parents.

So when a friend told me that she’d got 99 per cent in the first of a series of Maths exams, I chose my words carefully. “Fabulous,” I said. “One down, just two to go. You’ll sail through them…” “But that was the easy one,” she whined. “It’s the others I’m worried about…” I knew we were in for a rough few weeks; her familiar refrain “Yes I know I did all right then, but now it’s different….”

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Winston Churchill’s much quoted definition would make my friend a pessimist – except that she isn’t. With impressive determination, she invariably picks herself up and by dint of hard work honed by a fear of failure, achieved 99 per cent in the other papers too. With comparable determination I suppressed my father’s judgement and suggested we crack open a bottle of something sparkling to celebrate… I think the world is divided in two – optimists and pessimists; your glass is either half full or half empty. But, it’s not always easy to tell the difference. Take Eeyore, the despondent donkey from Pooh Corner. Miserable and depressing at every turn, but one of the world’s greatest optimists at heart. After admitting that it was still freezing he remarks “However, we haven’t had an earthquake lately.”

Some people stick out like a sore thumb, miserable gits to the last, determined to pass on and share their gloom with others. Others seem to ignore reality and the imminent gathering storm and press on regardless, evoking disbelief and scorn in equal measure. “Pessimism never won any battle,” said General Eisenhower; “Optimism is the madness of insisting all is well when we are miserable,” said Voltaire.

Brexit is certainly shaking the optimists and pessimists out of the woodwork. Some see our leaving the EU as the dawning of second Elizabethan age, with favourable trade deals being secured with every country under the sun. Others are more measured in their comment, wondering if we haven’t just shot ourselves in the foot as a clearer picture emerges of the government’s lack of cohesive thinking and the now infamous phrase ‘coalition of chaos’ is revealed at almost every turn.

“I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will,” said Antonio Gramski. I have a feeling we are going to need all the will we can muster in the coming weeks.