Suddenly I had a contract and I was earning lots of money.

I had a quick ear and could pick up languages.

You never came home for lunch: you just stayed doing, playing, having fun, surfing, running round.

I had a place in England and was commuting from England to Australia, which is pretty stupid, but after two years I sort of knew what I wanted to do, more or less.

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.

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

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.