My mother felt it was time that I had some parental control, so I went off to America and went to New York.

Wherever the wings of love take me, that is my flare path and my way.

Once, the parental bed collapsed because all the children sat on it at once.

I was often very, incredibly naughty, and if I didn't come home at tea time I used to be sent to bed without any dinner. But people used to bring me things: I was better fed in bed.

At boarding school you had to wear your name across your chest and your back, and obviously I had a pretty funny name. It wasn't Brown or Smith or Hughes.

It was a very odd household, because the grandmothers were so different. Both of them had their own pianos. So it would be duelling pianos by grandmothers.

I had a quick ear and could pick up languages.