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My grandfather was an eccentric too. I think there were more of them in those days - we all conform now. When World War II came he used to rant, 'I'm not going in for this rationing, it won't catch on'!

His two sons, my uncles Bob and Jack, took him out of Wales for the first time in his life. They went to London and took him to The Windmill Theatre where the showgirls perform in the nude. He said, 'They took me to Sodom and Gomorrah - there I was, so shocked, I had to stay for another performance'.

My grandparents knew Lloyd George. My aunts Nel and Bet were very pretty and when Lloyd George met them he said 'Ah, the ladies with bells on their teeth'. And that's how they were known after that.

Our family's of Gypsy extraction and one of my aunts told fortunes. My uncles swaggered around with earrings and red scarves and always went to Menai Bridge Fair. I was forbidden to go because my mother thought it was rough, so I'd sneak in but get thrown out by my uncles.

We kept a dairy in Pool Street, Caernarfon, and my two uncles looked after the horses, which were kept outside the town. I remember playing outside, in and out of the legs of the huge cart horses - they were so gentle, despite being so huge. I think the dairy is still there.

I went to Caernarfon Grammar School before getting a scholarship to study philosophy and English at Bangor, then I taught for a while. I got married, but it was a mistake - I'm terrible at choosing men. Great in my books, but not in real life. I then married someone else, but that didn't work out either and so I decided to go travelling. My three children had grown up and I wanted to write.

I've lived in America, Malta, France and Israel. Now I'm in Valencia, but the Welsh mountains are calling me home again. Besides, the summers here are so hot even the Spaniards complain. So I feel like coming back to somewhere romantic like Blaenau Ffestiniog.

I've made friends everywhere, but in the end you come back to your own.

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