I was born on the 23rd November 1973 in Hexham, which is in the north of England. I'm the eldest of three, all girls. We moved down through England and Wales, until my family finally settled in the Cotswolds, in the south west.
I had a pretty idyllic childhood, my Dad is a social worker and has nearly always worked for specialist children's homes where the home/s are on a private campus, including grounds for staff housing. These places were generally in very rural areas and all had farms and plenty of play areas - so it was kinda like being in the Famous Five, lots of adventures and hearty picnics...we were just forced to let my littlest sister tag along instead of Timmy the dog.
I left home when I was 18. Mainly because we were living on one of these campus places, called the "Cotswold Community" and I didn't drive, so I was a bit cut off from my friends.
I'm pretty sure most of the staff had initially arrived expecting to take part in some kind of ongoing folk festival - as there were hand knitted rainbow jumpers, jesus sandals and vegans galore - they took social work on as a side line.
We had things called "gatherings" at various points in the year, where you'd turn up at one of the barns and everyone bought food and drink and instruments for the inevitable sing song. All very lovely, but to the 18 year old rock fanatic - slightly embarassing!
I moved out with some friends and had a blast for the next four years (sex, drugs and rock and roll), after which I moved back to a village near the Community and got together with my husband - 12 years later we have three children, one cat and live opposite a pub (rock and roll, beer and once every other month)
Education wise, I did well at school but lacked the motivation to stick at college - which I dropped out of twice. First time I studied French, English Literature and Art - second go I did Eng Lit, Art and Psychology.
College is something I think often of going back and redoing.