I have brought up an extended family in and around Cambridge while drawing on kitchen tops and in unplumbed bathrooms, conservatories, bedrooms, and in a cramped hallway for a year.

Family was always first. I supported my children from nursery to university, provided B&B for their friends and hosted international students, I became the de facto chef, taxi service and accountant. I was below the cat litter in the hierarchy, but I would not change a minute of it and these were some of the most rewarding and happy years of my life. My father, a botanist, joined the family home at this time. It was nice for the children to have a mad professor in the attic and very good for me to share the last years of his life. I hope some of these experiences are reflected in the samples I have put together for potential children's books.

I find I have more time than I have ever had for my own ideas and I am working towards the things I always wanted to do when I left the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology.