A new all-women’s club, AllBright, is doing fantastically well in its branches in Mayfair and Fitzrovia. So well, in fact, that it’s opened a branch in Los Angeles and is opening two more in New York and Washington, DC. Why do people join clubs? I speak as a member of the Beefsteak Club and the Academy Club in London. For a long time, clubs were considered old-fashioned. In the 1950s, some people thought gentlemen’s clubs were on their last legs. And yet they’re thriving today, with waiting lists that last for years. Groucho Marx’s line – “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member” – was brilliant. Lots of people think differently: they long to join any club that won’t have most other people as a member. It isn’t a very moral impulse but people long for exclusivity. A club that accepted everyone wouldn’t be a club. Tribes may change – whether it’s upper-class men or professional women – but humans have always been tribal and always will be.