My mother loved dogs, swimming and music. Someone who heard her sing told me that she would never forget it. I can't remember her singing but I do remember her playing the piano. She and my grandmother sang about the house all the time. My mother also loved to travel and she went all over Europe on her own, in the days when this was unusual. She used to make friends on the way. She once sang at a union conference and people said that she was better than the professional singer. My mother worked at the headquarters of the Railway Clerks' Association near Euston Station and everyone said that she was really the one who was running things. She was earning more than my father when they got married, which was also very unusual in those days.