Jo Whiley

We all played skipping games and rode our bikes in the street. It felt incredibly friendly and safe, and everybody was accepting of my younger sister Frances, ...

My mum ran a toy library for kids with learning disabilities and we got to road-test the toys. Another day she got to the top of the climbing frame in the garden then just let go and fell, breaking her arm hideously. She’d also have convulsions and we’d put a wooden spoon wound with bandages between her teeth so she didn’t bite her tongue. My electrician dad Martin was very good at making up stories, but then she’d call for me, so I spent a lot of time sitting on the stairs waiting. We all played skipping games and rode our bikes in the street. I loved my early years in a 1970s cul-de-sac in a newly built house, even though we had difficult and dramatic times.