After Mum died, I went to live with my Aunt Mimi. She's the greatest, bless her heart. We have a little house, with frilly curtains at the windows, and an old apple tree in the front garden. When I'm away from home, I think about Aunt Mimi and her frilly curtains and her apple tree, and I realize I'm fortunate, because though Mum was taken away from me, I was given something precious in return. Growing up in Liverpool isn't much different from growing up in any other part of the country.
Life there is a bit tougher than in the south, because jobs are sometimes hard to find.
It isn't a beautiful city architecturally, but it's got great atmosphere. If you are in the heart of Liverpool very late at night, you might hear a girl singing with a group of fellows harmonizing for her, as they make their way through the narrow streets between the high buildings to the coffee stall down by the Pierhead. The Pierhead is where the boats come in from Birkenhead and Tyneside, and where the tramps and the teenagers, the young and the old meet in the early hours of the morning. I went to school at Dovedale Primary, and Quarry Bank Grammar. Reading, writing and 'rithmetic over, I went on to the Liverpool College of Art.