'I was determined to succeed'

THIS WEEK'S COLUMNIST Broadcaster and panellist Janet Street-Porter

- 

In 2005, I wrote a book called Baggage, a memoir about growing up and why I didn't get on with my mother. Recently, I added a new chapter reflecting on how I now feel about that relationship, and that has turned into a one-woman show about my strange family background.

I grew up in a very secretive household. My mum hardly talked about her life before she met my dad, or even how she met him. She'd been married before, but I never met her first husband, and I still don't know much about their relationship.

It wasn't until after my parents died that my sister, Patricia, and I discovered they weren't married when they had me. Their relationship began during the war, and then my dad was posted to Burma. When he returned, they got together properly and I was conceived straight away.