At the age of eight I knew that I wanted to be a writer. A few years later, in 1964, I left MHSG to read English at Oxford, with only romantic diary entries to my name.

I did my teaching practice at Roedean and was offered a job, but turned this down to work in a Liberal Arts College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This was gained basically by showing two nuns (academics) around my College on an afternoon off from being Social Secretary to Americans visiting Oxford.

I returned to the UK after a year and worked at Wycombe Abbey, where I taught one of Enoch Powell’s daughters, but that is another anecdote!

I had started writing but had given it up because I could not write like Iris Murdoch, nor could I make the characters speak. I started teaching at a secondary modern school in Leicester, having married, and became Head of English. I wanted a book about children like ours: none seemed available so at last I had a subject.

Heinemann published the first book, Tug Of War, and Cassell published the second, Magic. I found the comic voice I wanted in my subsequent books, Martini-On-The-Rocks and Kill-A-Louse Week, both of which were published by Puffin.

Eventually, with a friend, I wrote a book for students entitled Mastering The Novels Of Jane Austen. I have now retired and have recently had a book of risqué comic verse published called Lily: The Memoirs In Doggerel Of A Late- Middle Aged, Slightly Overweight, Arty Nymphette.