Legs 11

The original of this photo isn’t in focus either, I’m afraid. The taller sunkissed bean sprout here is me, aged about 11, on the footpath outside our home. A family joke used to be that the handle of the tennis racquet was fatter than my legs!

I was very proud of those lilac hot pants, which my auntie Peggy made for me. She also made me a pair of ‘parallel leg’ trousers with a ribbon of tartan up the side in my Bay City Roller fan days.

My mother had died about four years before this photo was taken and my poor dad didn’t quite know what to do with two daughters, so we ran a bit wild. I disappeared all day up that little hill you can see, but my sister’s wildness was more damaging to her. Saying that, she’d probably tell you she had a ball!