[1] Lynda Higginson was born into a working-class family in the mining town of Leigh, Lancashire.

[2] Her father, Norman, was a miner who would later turn to painting and decorating, while her mother, Margaret (née Berry) worked in a shoe shop; Lynda won a place at Leigh Girls' Grammar School, which she described as "the escape route for ordinary children and the pathway to a new life".

[3] Her first ambition was to become an actress and, aged 18, she went to London to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, later telling friends that she lost her Lancashire accent on the train down.

[4] After leaving the Guildhall School, and using the stage name Lynda Berrison, she won a part in one of Brian Rix's farces at the Whitehall Theatre.

[1] While living there, she began her career as a journalist, writing articles for the Aden Chronicle about life as an expatriate.

[3] The book offered aperçus such as "upper middle-class mummies have little trouble with au pairs because they are naturally authoritative" and "the lower middle-classes desperately want to be dainty", and dispensed advice, such as what to take your hostess at country house weekends: "Under no circumstances take a poinsettia, which is the plant equivalent of a bottle of Blue Nun.