The Essex mother of three and grandmother of seven - along with her husband John - is a committed member of British Naturism, an organisation which promotes social nudity.

Forget sly sniggers, seaside postcards and Carry On films, though - for Jean it has proved liberating, as well as fun.

"We started it to get an all-over tan on the beaches in places like Tenerife," she explains, mischievously. "It's nice - none of those white lines."

At this point, Jean and John were only unofficial naturists, albeit with very good suntans.

"As for naturism itself, we only joined about two years ago," explains Jean, 62.

"You get an official card with a photo to say you're a British Naturist - I feel far more safe with it than I would without it.

"We got the Health and Efficiency book from them with all the places in there listed for naturists. I hadn't realised how many there were, because they don't advertise."

In fact, there are around 180 dedicated naturism sites in Britain, used enthusiastically by the country's 25,000 card-carrying naturists.

"There are probably a lot more - people I used to speak to on holiday weren't in British Naturism but they would sunbathe naked," says Jean.

It isn't all sunbathing, either. Naturist sites feature swimming pools and a host of sporting activities ranging from volleyball to tennis.

In fact, Jean and John were inspired to take up naked petanque, or boule, and are now part of the official team. They're off to Rotterdam in August, for the International Naturist Petanque Championships.

The team uniform is fairly simple - socks and shoes, basically - but can change according to the weather.

"In most of the competitions we play in, the weather's so bad that it's been wellingtons and mackintoshes," Jean chuckles.

It takes a certain amount of grit to even consider going naked in Britain for much of the year, so it's reassuring to know that naturists are pragmatic about balancing the conflict between staying naked and avoiding hypothermia.

"If you're cold, you slip something on," says Jean.

So, what does she get out of baring all before strangers?

"The freedom," she says. "You're all the same if you're naturists, nobody's got the Gucci dress and no-one's boasting about how much their jewellery cost.

"Everybody's so friendly, much more than they would be if you went to a textile club."

It should be explained here that textile is the naturist term for the clothed.

According to Jean, it's also more convenient to go without clothes.

"You haven't got to wear a swimming costume, so you haven't got to mess around with putting a towel around you on the beach," she says, smilingly.

"You just dry off."

Not that Jean was always so blithe about the prospect of going naked in public.

"It took me an hour to take my clothes off when we joined the club," she recalls.

"Everyone else was sitting around on the patio having cheese and biscuits and a chat about the next petanque match."

Naturism also gives members a chance to get away from the body paranoia which affects so many people, especially women.

"I'm a size 18, but you get people who are size 12s and it doesn't make any difference," Jean explains.

"You're all human beings, you're all the same."

At the photo shoot for the naturist team - sponsored, strangely enough, by Persil - Jean even found herself reassuring the young models hired to pose naked with her and John.

"The young chap was shocked, he'd never done naturism before," she laughs.

"But within five minutes he said he was enjoying it. The girl was really nice - she saw the swimming pool and said she wished she'd bought her bikini because she could have had a swim.

"We roared with laughter because it's a naturist pool - she couldn't go in there with a costume on anyway."

FACTFILE:

* Naturism's history goes back over a century - as early as 1891 a short-lived Fellowship of the Naked Trust existed in British India. In 1922 the English Gymnosophist Society was formed, using a site at our own Wickford, as well as holding winter meetings in London

* Today, there are about 25,000 members of British Naturism

* It is estimated that about half-a-million people in the UK are naturists, being members of clubs, using beaches, going on holiday or just in their own garden

* Britain has the fifth largest national naturist federation in the world - only France, the Netherlands, Germany and the USA have more members

* There are around 180 naturist venues in the UK, more than 70 of which are clubs with their own land, and more than 100 British beaches are used by naturists

* There are no specific laws banning naturism

* Many naturist clubs have two or three generations of a family in membership.