I was brought up in a very ordinary middle class family in a Lancashire village during the 1970s. My dad had a good job as a sales manager for a large textiles firm and my mum was happy to be a housewife, doing the things such middle class ladies did back in the day, such as helping out at the Women’s Institute, arranging the flowers in church etc.
However, our cosy little world was turned upside down just after my ninth birthday when dad ran off with another woman. Needless to say, my mum was devastated – she became a lot more introverted and grew increasingly close to the church, to which naturally I had to accompany her. I must say, I just found it dead boring.