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Me, in 5:

1. After thirteen years as an NHS nurse, it struck me that there’s nothing so levelling as death, disease and a gaping hospital gown.
2. I knew I wanted to home educate before I’d even had children. I’d read ‘How Children Learn’, by John Holt. It made sense to me. When I mentored student nurses, I trusted their innate capacity for learning. I trusted their desire to be of service and to do a good job. Every aspect of our day was a learning opportunity. No question was too small. And much could be gleaned from a good conversation over a cup of tea. When my children came along I could see that even the youngest of us has intrinsic curiosity, drive and spark. We all want to find our place in the world and have an inbuilt know-how to do this.
3. My youngest son has Down syndrome. We got lucky.
4. For most of my adult life I felt like a flake. Even as a nurse, my specialism was generalism; I had 7 different posts in 13 years, predominantly within the field of general medicine. I knew a little about a lot which I saw as A Bad Thing. What I know now is that I’m a curious soul who loves to learn. And certain themes pull me; how we learn and grow, what makes us tick and what lights us up. I used to think that broad and narrow was inferior to wide and deep, but I recognise that learning this way gives me perspective.
5. I’ve been body conscious for much of my life. Still, when I was five months pregnant with my first child, I shed my inhibitions (along with my clothing) and took part in Spencer Tunick’s nude photo shoot at Selfridges in London.