After growing up in Kent, in a quietly dysfunctional family, I did a foundation course at Maidstone Art College, followed by Fine Art, Painting at Leicester Polytechnic, landing up at The Sunday Times by chance in 1972 and eventually becoming a full time journalist in Brazil, spending 15 years there instead of one. I married a musician, we had one son, but later separated.

I now (2024) live in outer London, walking two dogs, visiting two granddaughters and currently holding my breath for our son, a personal trainer, who has just opened his own gym. My life-long motto is St John’s, ‘the truth will set you free’, as long as you can discover what it is. Recently, a DNA test on Ancestry.com revealed that I am one quarter Norwegian, have two half-nieces and my late father was a double bigamist.

It’d be great if we had a Tolmers reunion. I can imagine trying to work out which grey-haired chap was the one I’d had a tremendous crush on 5 decades ago, and which senior lady was the girl who fell asleep on the floor after a party at 64 Euston Street.