Sally Trench is currently waiting for God to tell her what he wants her to do next. “All the different things I’ve done,” this veteran global charity worker explains, “He has guided me to do them. He is the only power that I’ve got. I don’t listen to anyone else.”

The hiatus is why she has agreed to talk to me at her home in north Oxfordshire. “I haven’t given an interview for years,” she announces almost gleefully as she ushers me in. I’m wondering whether to feel grateful or intimidated when she adds: “My privacy is very important to me.”