1. Industrious family My great-grandparents owned coal mines in Ashington, Northumberland. I love this painting that my great-grandmother bought by one of the Ashington Group, known as the Pitmen Painters. They were mine workers with no formal art training who painted everyday life as they saw it around them. My father’s side owned a boiler-making factory in Wakefield. Maybe starting a pottery works was in my genes. 2. Sister act My mother Charlotte (left) and her younger sister Theresa adored each other’s company. They were generous, hospitable and great entertainers It fills me with happiness thinking of my mother Charlotte and her younger sister Theresa shrieking with laughter. That’s Mum on the left in the photo. Two wonderful women who adored each other’s company, they were generous, hospitable and great entertainers. Mum was severely brain-damaged after falling from her horse in 1991, when she was 52; she never recovered but lived on for 22 years. I’m one of eight children – from my parents’ several marriages – and we all adore each other.