Did you have family chores? What were they? Which was your least favorite?

I certainly didn’t have to do any chores when I was very small – up to 9yrs old anyway! In Malawi we had servants. Malawi had a very poor economy (it’s much worse now than it was 20 odd years ago) and most expatriates had servants. We had a garden boy and a house boy – god, it sounds so un-pc now!

Julio was the house boy/cook and he was great. He actually started as our gardener, but when we sacked the old house boy that my dad had before we arrived (I think it was after he managed to serrate all my mum’s Sabatier knives and scrubbed the Teflon coating off the sandwich toaster as well as loads of other things) Julio got promoted! My mum taught him how to cook and he was brilliant. Raymond was our gardener and he was about 7’ tall with feet about size 14 (UK size). There were servants quarters away from the house, and they lived there with their wives and children. They were paid a wage, they had a home and my mum and dad paid all of their medical bills, paid school fees for their children and paid for food and clothing. My mum also told them that if they stole from them they would be sacked, but if they were hungry or needed anything, all they had to do was ask.

Anyway, to get back to the point, I never even made my bed until I was 9 and we went back to UK! My mum would tell me to tidy my room, and Julio would step in and do it, telling my mum that I was only a little girl!!

Moving to UK was a shock to the system – suddenly I had to do things for myself! I had to learn how to make a bed, didn’t have anyone else to tidy my room, and as I got older I obviously had to do more and more things for myself! Looking back, it’s probably a good thing that we left when I was that age, otherwise I’d have become a real spoilt brat, unable to do anything! Maybe it’s why I’m still quite messy though!

When my cousin and I were about 11 and 12 we got rabbits. He was living with us during term time then as we were both weekly boarders at a nearby prep school, and his parents were overseas. We begged my mum one day if we could have a rabbit each, and to our immense surprise, she agreed! We had to clean those cages once a week, and it was a horrible job. That’s the main reason I’ve never bought Isla a rabbit – I hated the cleaning so much! NB. Photographs Not My Own Work