My mum is bright, ambitious, well read, political and very bolshie: when my dad was conscripted into the Army and posted to Libya, she convinced some general to let her go with him. I don't know how she managed it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My mother is a special story. She went through so much to bring us up, four men at home, especially when our country was going through really difficult times.
Mum told me stories about her time in the Women's Royal Navy, and about her dad, who had died before I was born - he'd been sent to Australia as a child, then joined the Australian Army in the First World War and fought at Gallipoli.
My mum made me feel if I wanted to become prime minister, I could do it.
Mum was an absolutely determined woman. She was determined I would have a good education, and they went without all sorts of things to ensure it.
My mother did all she could to control me, but at age 14 she sent me to a military school.
Dad was a very gentle, sweet man. Mum was the matriarch and the patriarch of the family. She ran the roost with a steel fist, but at the same time there was respect and love for her.
My dad's a journalist, and he travelled a lot when I was young. There is no way my mother could have done that.
I admire my mother for being a single mum. It's ridiculously hard.
Mum was always hard-working. She came over from Spain and bought her own council house.
At the age of fifteen my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general.