An old man lives at the bottom of my garden. His name is Robert Barkus, or Bakehouse, or Bagust. Nobody is quite sure. But I often sense him around when I’m gardening, and I’ve found out a fair bit ab

As bubbly and vivacious as her Coronation Street character, actress Catherine Tyldesley finds it hard to play her cards close to her chest. So, it perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that when he

Miss Julia White, horsewoman, sailor, farmer and haunter of my own farming life (such as it isn’t) first appeared in my life when I was 17, trying to get myself to agricultural college. Or was it when

What revealed the magic of books for me was The Wind in the Willows. When I was five, I contracted measles, which meant I had to spend my days in bed in a darkened room. My mother sat outside my bedro

T here is a low-level hum that forms the soundtrack to many women’s lives. It’s a conditioning. The silent expectation to be the architect of everyone’s day, managing the moods of daily life. Being th

Emmerdale’ s Mary Goskirk