Sorry, I’m not blessed with Fiona Bruce’s steely resolve to shun Botox

Fiona Bruce is almost unique among her generation of high-profile female presenters in that she has never — so she says — succumbed to the temptation of Botox.

in an industry where frozen foreheads abound, she remains steadfastly untouched by the needle at 55, even though, as she puts it: ‘if you don’t do it, as i don’t, you look pretty rough by comparison.’

i think she’s being a bit hard on herself. With her impeccable poise and perpetual low-key glamour, Bruce is the last person i would describe as looking ‘rough’.

But there is undoubtedly something in what she says. Women these days view their appearance with an increasingly critical eye, often striving to achieve impossible levels of perfection in a world that seems to value appearance above almost everything else.

it’s not just those who make a living on screen who feel this need; thanks to the popularity of imagebased social media platforms such as instagram, we all spend more time scrutinising our own reflections than is perhaps good for us.

and i should know. This time last year i had a thread lift, ostensibly for a magazine article but if i’m honest because, like Fiona Bruce, i was feeling somewhat ‘rough’.

i wanted to look and feel just that little bit glossier, more confident — less like the rather cross, increasingly jowly person who greeted me every morning in the mirror.

AThread lift is a little more involved than Botox: in essence it involves inserting a number of barbed threads under the skin which are then tightened to lift the tissues of the face.

over time the threads dissolve, leaving the lift in place.

it wasn’t exactly painless; but it was quick, and it was effective. i left the clinic looking a little chipmunky but otherwise unscathed, and went straight to a lunch meeting.

over the course of the following weeks and months, my skin grew smoother and my face less saggy. But perhaps more importantly, for the first time in years i felt quite good about myself. and, shallow as that may seem, it was the best feeling ever.

We live in a world where there is an entire new female aesthetic, fuelled by the rise of celebrities such as Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian and their many imitators, whose appearance relies heavily on the work of cosmetic surgeons.

among such social media ‘ influencers’, Botox and fillers and all the rest are no longer the exception, they are the norm — ‘instagram Face’, they call it.

and Fiona Bruce is right: these pouting paragons of perfection do make the rest of us look ‘ rough’. even if you know it’s all fake, it’s hard not to be seduced by it.

no wonder more and more of us are succumbing. according to a recent survey, 40 per cent of British adults are considering a non-surgical treatment in the next 12 months. in the uK alone, the market for these treatments is projected to rise to more than £3 billion a year within five years.

Like it or not, having one’s facial expressions tweaked is fast becoming no more unusual than a visit to the dentist.

The sad truth is that we are not all blessed with Fiona’s solid, sensible resolve — least of all me. i admire her tremendously. But i fear she may be fighting a losing battle.