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"Where are you from?" The answer is: Goole, Countess Wear, Woodbury, Ystradgynlais, Three Crosses, Swansea, Birmingham, London, St Albans and Great Shelford.
I was born in Yorkshire but moved to Devon with my parents and two brothers when I was two. We settled in a village near Exmouth where I got busy knitting the back of my first school cardigan. I’m wearing it in this picture, just visible on my right shoulder.
My very favourite things at primary school were writing and reading stories and poems, drawing, painting and country dancing. Our school had a maypole and we learned various dances which made different patterns with the coloured ribbons as we danced round and round.
At home what I liked most of all was playing my violin. I first heard a violin when I was four and I fell in love with the sound. I can still remember how much I wanted one. I used to walk around the house with two bits of spaghetti pretending to play. Eventually my parents got fed up with picking up broken bits of pasta and bought me a violin when I was five. I was thrilled and remember walking to my first lesson. Violin playing was harder than I thought but I was determined! This is me playing to my grandparents when I was 12. The Purdy hairstyle was popular at the time - hard to believe now, I know!
In the dark days before computers, we had to entertain ourselves and dressing up was a favourite! Here I am with my brothers, Ben and Julian, as: the Sugar Plum Fairy, Dr Livingston (the jungle explorer) and Juan Carlos the Gaucho! I wonder what story we were making up? I have even stuck sugar cubes on the top of the tissue box for my beautiful hat!
Our pets also kept us busy. We had: two cats, three rabbits, zebra finches and canaries, tortoises, terrapins, gerbils, guinea pigs, goldfish, tropical fish, stick insects, two dogs, ducklings, Canadian garter snakes, Indian pythons and a green iguana! Sounds like a recipe for a witches brew!
No pictures of our snakes but these cute fluffy friends were: Twitch, Cuddles and Beauty. My bunny was Beauty.
It was quite a menagerie! Looking back, I think we were very lucky to have so many animals. I also always wanted a pony and a donkey - there's no pleasing some people!
When I was 11, we moved to Wales where we walked our legs off up and down the Brecon Beacons. I did a lot more violin practice and joined the National Youth Orchestra of Wales which, for someone who loves playing, was just perfect!
At university I studied music (with computer science and maths) and afterwards worked in London as an agent for opera singers. I spent the evenings playing in concerts and shows and I met my husband, Alastair, when we were both performing in the same event. He is an opera singer - it's an unusual job that also involves a lot of dressing up. Here he is with a splendid headress.
We have three children who are now all big and grown up. When they were small I loved reading them favourite stories from my childhood like Ludwig Bemelmans' Madeline, Quentin Blake's Patrick and Spike Milligan's A Book of Milliganimals. It was also wonderful to discover new stories.
I started teaching the violin in schools and at home and have been so lucky to meet many wonderful young people. Quite a few of my students began lessons with me when they were six and carried on until they left school. It's a privilege to see them grow into young adults and I can't think of a nicer way to earn a living!
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to write stories and poems. The Covid pandemic gave me the chance to turn back the clock to when I wrote the first two Snippy stories while my new baby was sleeping in his cradle, and begin again from there.
