The children grew up. We adopted one of our foster girls. She asked to be adopted and was adopted just before her 16^th birthday on Christmas Eve. They opened the magistrates court especially for us.

Now, most of the children were university students. They were anti-establishment, full of wonderful ideas. I loved them. I did not really have teenage years. I lived in Kuala Lumpur and there were no European counterparts to me. Only, in my eyes, aged rubber planters who invited me out but they were 30 and I was 16!

Suddenly, all the joy I had missed as a teenager was presented to me through my children and their friends and I was 40! I so enjoyed it and would stay up until the early hours talking about poetry, philosophy, politics and literature. Those young people were so vibrant. Our house became ‘the party house’ started before we returned from Africa when they grew pot on the landing. I just joined in and they gave me so much. They taught me to drink by taking me to the pub. Up to this point, I had not discovered the   pleasure of alcohol. But since then I rely on its pleasure.

We returned from crossing the Sahara and my husband had been made redundant.  The onus was on me to support the family. I received a call from the nursing agency that I had worked with before.

‘I can only think of one person that is mad enough to do this job. Can you go and work with Paramount Pictures at Hever Castle?’ A film directed by Trevor Nunn of the Royal Shakespeare Company called ‘Lady Jane’giving the story of Lady Jane Grey. My job was to look after the crew medically. They worked such long hours that they had not time to go to a doctor.

This job fitted my experience perfectly. I had become a quack doctor in Africa, I was happy to prescribe drugs and take responsibility.  Of course, I worked in liaison with doctors.

The film industry gave me an opportunity to observe a wedge of humanity. It was a cross section of society. You had the riggers (the scaffolders) many were illiterate, often from a Romany background. You had carpenters and talented painters and electricians that lugged massive lamps up mountains. They were somewhat discriminated against even though it seemed from the outside an egalitarian society. Then there was the hierarchy, producers, art directors, make- up artists, the wardrobe department, costume designers, the camera team were considered elite. Below this came the working men who gave structure to the project. Finally, there were the actors who popped in and acted. Of course, they were mostly famous and cost half the budget of the film.

I spent 27 years in the film industry. It was a rich experience.