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Mummy was absolutely the rock in my life. It was not that I didn't love my father; he was such a quiet man, and she was not. She was the most vivid person I have ever known. She was accomplished and brave and fearless. She used to say to me, 'I want you to be able to talk to anyone about anything.'

Those days of every child having a mummy and daddy who lived at home - Daddy went to work, and Mummy stayed at home and took care of everyone - those days have almost gone, and it's so much more unconventional now.

I saw my aunties and my mum give up a part of themselves and their dreams to have kids. There were things they wanted to achieve in life, but they had kids instead.

I wouldn't say I'm a mummy's girl, but I have grown to have a tremendous appreciation of her as a woman. I was very much a daddy's girl.

For a long time, I wanted children. When I was about 30 or 32, I really thought about it.

Our father died when we were very young, so our mother raised six kids. We saw the world filtered through her eyes, being a minority woman raising six kids.

I was sent to boarding school at the age of ten. I think Mummy was trying to protect me in her own way, trying to spare me living through the day-to-day reality of her illness.

My mother did not like children.

They had enough. They wanted to enjoy their life.