But, unlike his fellow-villagers, he was renowned for having a deficit: he had been born in a lean year, and, to make matters worse, an estranged aunt had once lifted him from his crib and praised Heaven for what a gorgeous, fat, rosy baby he was thereby sealing forever his fate to be generally impoverished, crippled, struck down and taken by the Devil at some unexpected time, in some terrifying way.
But spotting those mothers whose bumps are due to fat as well as baby is difficult, not least because there are no UK guidelines on how much weight women should gain during pregnancy.