Childhood
Asked, at the age of eight, what I wanted to be when I grew up I replied, “I’m going to be an actress first, and in my old age I shall be a writer.” Both these aims I achieved, although my “old age” came rather earlier than anticipated. I was in my mid-twenties when I started writing full-time.
I was born in London but spent my early years in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor.
I was born in London but spent my early years in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor.
Back in London I began to rebel, finding the suburban life of East Sheen so dull after running wild on Dartmoor.
At ten I was sent to a small boarding school in Sussex known for its happy atmosphere rather than its academic record. Most of the other girls had, what seemed to me, exotic backgrounds – parents in India, or divorced or whose father had died heroically during the war. Not to be outdone I told my classmates that I was a foundling abandoned on the church steps by my real mother who had been a duchess or a murderess according to my mood. When word of this reached the headmistress she telephoned my poor mother to ask why I had not told her that Jill was adopted.
Fortunately they were both sensible women and agreed to say nothing to me but to direct me towards the drama classes.
At ten I was sent to a small boarding school in Sussex known for its happy atmosphere rather than its academic record. Most of the other girls had, what seemed to me, exotic backgrounds – parents in India, or divorced or whose father had died heroically during the war. Not to be outdone I told my classmates that I was a foundling abandoned on the church steps by my real mother who had been a duchess or a murderess according to my mood. When word of this reached the headmistress she telephoned my poor mother to ask why I had not told her that Jill was adopted.
Fortunately they were both sensible women and agreed to say nothing to me but to direct me towards the drama classes.
'I Have Five Daughters' by Margaret Macnamara - Angela Thorne (far left), me (far right)
'Dear Brutus' by James Barry - me with Angela Thorne
