I had a doll when Iwas a child. A large procelain doll that made a soundwhich was supposed to resemble 'Mamma'. I called her Jenni and she had two teeth which disappeared into her gums when I tried to clean them. My mother paid a dressmaker to sew some extra clothes for Jenni, (pink crepe de chine dresses). I gave her a wipe over when I was in the mood and walked her out in a pram.

Emma had a doll andpushchairand Kate had Suzy and a pram. Kate preferred stuffed animal toys to dolls soSuzy's popularity soon waned.

For some unknown reason, Kate and I were talking last week about people whocoo into babies prams. I said people in Fishguard liked babies and Kate said Carmarthenpeople do, too, remembering when Ffion was small.

Atthe weekend I stood aside for a middle aged woman with a small pram to come out of a shop. As she manoeuvered it carefully over the step I noticed what I thought was a baby, swaddled in frills, sleeping. 'Oh, a contented baby', I said brightly, but the woman went on her way.

Inside the shop, one assistant saidto the other: 'If she brings that doll in again, I'll be spooked. It's really weird'.

I was looking at some Christmas cards, when a thought flashed up. 'Was that adoll in the pram?'

The words had left my mouth before I'd had time to think. The assistants nodded. 'Shebought it on the internet. She's ordered another. The chest goes up and down as though it's sleeping'.

I wondered if the woman was returning to some part of her childhood when she'd not had toys. The assistants said that this person had grown-up children, but was spending a small fortune on these dolls (one dollcost eight hundred pounds).

I thought of men who collect dinky toy cars, model aeroplanes and toy trains and I saw some parallels with doll collectors.

Later, I spoke toEmmaabout it and I mentionedarrested development.We both know people who dress as though they are still twenty one, forty years later, because twenty one was the age they felt was their best and so these, too have a 'golden age'.

Emma said people who have lost their mothers at a young age often re-live that time with the sort of toys they would have had.

I could not let this woman andthe doll she treated as almost real, out of my mind. And the other thing was, why did this doll make us feel uncomfortable?

Ernst Jensch, the psychologist, said thatuncanny feelings arise when there isuncertainty if something is alive or not.

Masahiro Mori, the roboticist, said if something is obviously inanimate, its human characteristics will stand out and be endearing, but if the boundary between human and mechanistic is blurred, the ambiguity will createuncertainty.Thiswould explain ourunease.

Somewhere,I've read: 'Whatever you have lacked, you will do your utmost toput into your life' and this refers to our deepest emotional needs.I'll remember this if I see the 'baby' again.