I Don't Have Ugly Ducklings Turning Into

An English Journalist Called Michael Viney Told Me When I Was 25, That I Would Write Well If I Cared A Lot What I Was Writing About. That Worked. I Went Home That Day And Wrote About Parents Not Understanding Their Children As Well As We Teachers Did, And It Was Published The Very Next Week.

She Put Her Head Down On The Table And Cried All The Tears That She Knew She Should Have Cried In The Past Year And A Half. But They Weren't Ready Then, They Were Now.

On The First Day Of School, My Father Told Me I'd Be The Most Popular Girl And Everyone Would Love Me And Want To Be My Friend. It Wasn't So, But It Gave Me An Enormous Amount Of Confidence.

I Don't Have Ugly Ducklings Turning Into Swans In My Stories. I Have Ugly Ducklings Turning Into Confident Ducks.

My Memory Of My Home Was That It Was Very Happy, And That There Was More Fun And Life There Than There Was Anywhere Else.