Well I grew up in a school more or less because my father was a master at Mill Hill. And a house master from the time that I could remember. So I was never in what you might describe as a normal house with a normal kitchen. And then during the war his school was evacuated to Cumberland, on to another school. Which was perhaps slightly less like a school but not much more like home. But I do remember that I went to a day school in London to begin with, half way down a steep hill.

I either walked with terrifying dogs or my mother drove me down in our old car, which I don’t know which was the more frightening thing really. But it did mean that I grew up without sort of natural neighbour children. And one of the reasons that I hated school so much, I think, was that I didn’t really make friends easily at all. But I suppose I never made any friends... proper, serious friends, until I was about 15.

And now having girl grandchildren I know how crucially girl friendships matter to little girls. I can see why I wasn’t particularly happy.