I used to do silver service waitressing at parties and events. The job was great, but there was constant harassment and groping from older men, and I hadn’t found my voice yet. It’s terrifying when you are young and you need a job.

Secretary to a lawyer. I was sacked after a week.

When I was 17 I took on a class of six-year-olds for a week. When the Angelus rang at noon, they stood up in silence and I realised I was supposed to recite the prayer, which I did not know. I said: “There will be no Angelus today because of that child fidgeting at the back.”

For two weeks I worked behind the players’ bar at Bolton Wanderers football club – footballers don’t tip.

To live your best life every day, because tomorrow isn’t promised.

My father was a very macho, controlling man and we clashed a lot. He told me that I would never be able to keep a husband with my attitude. He was right! I’ve had two short, unsuccessful marriages.

Arrogance combined with egotism and selfishness.

Escaping an abusive teen marriage and being blessed with the opportunity to create a new life for myself and my two young children in London at the height of the swinging 60s.

It has been in myself, for allowing individuals who I relied on to make important decisions in my life that left me alone to pick up the pieces.

Oprah Winfrey, as Maya Angelou and Tina Turner are no longer with us. These women are Afro-American queens who, despite growing up in the racist south experiencing physical, emotional and sexual abuse, rose to the top of their professions and are an inspiration to women everywhere.