I’m going into my third/possibly fourth winter with the best boots I’ve ever bought: Ecco Voyage.

I first wrote about them here.

When I say going into my third winter, I mean I wear them every day from end of September til about April.

They may be slightly superfluous if you live in a city (you’d still find them useful though), but living in the country as I do they are fantastic and vital and here’s why:

They’re warm
They look smart
They’re waterproof
They’re comfortable
They have a great grippy sole

I have a love/hate relationship with Ecco in that several of my walking boots that I bought from them (and my partner has had this same problem) have fallen apart after only a couple of years (not what I’d expect). But these seem different. Not cheap at £160 this year but on a price per wear basis they’re a bargain.

And these are the socks to wear with them from Uniqlo. Warm, comfy, keep their colour in the way that other black doesn’t (because they’re synthetic but don’t be scared of this, synthetics are so much better now). And they’re not overly thick.

Not easy to see detail but they’re these. £9.90 for two.

UPDATE, October 2013

I’ve had so many enquiries about these boots because I wear them in my full length byline picture in the Guardian. The link above no longer works. But I haven’t corrected it because although Ecco still makes Voyage boots, they are not the same. If you Google them it’ll take you to the Ecco site and you can find them. But they’re not the same as the ones I write about here – the design is different and of course, I have no idea if they are as good. I feel a bit sad that I didn’t stock up on them last year, but I’ve also long learned that there is no surer, faster, way to go off something than to buy more than one of them..

Update, September 2014

Joy. Ecco has brought them back. From what I can see from the picture they are the same, just now called Voyage V. But they go in and out of stock..