Janet Ellis I Remember…

Television presenter Janet Ellis, 62, is best known for her stint as a Blue Peter host during the 1980s. Now an author, her debut novel, The Butcher’s Hook launched to critical acclaim in 2016.

- Joy Persaud

…WHEN I WAS ABOUT TWO THERE WAS A FLOOD IN THE HOUSE.

I think a washing machine had overflowed or something. I remember my favourite teddies being hung up to dry in the kitchen by their ears, and wanting them back.

…BEING AN ARMY KID.

I was born in Chatham but I didn’t spend very long there because my parents moved several times over the next few years. I went to seven different schools so it was a typical army childhood. Army children are a great breed because they are so used to being dropped into new places and having to make the best of it. You don’t necessarily move neatly at the end of the school term and you often join schools in the middle of things when people were already in established friendship groups and knew where the loos were.

…MY DAD WAS A CAPTAIN IN THE ROYAL ENGINEERS.

My mum had been a nurse before they got married and then when I was 16 she went back to work as a nursery nurse in a local school. I think in those days army wives weren’t really encouraged to do anything. They were homemakers.

…WEIRDLY, YOU COULDN’T HAVE TOO MANY BIG TOYS, BECAUSE EVERYTHING had to be packed up. My sister, who is two years younger and I had bicycles, but I’ve always wanted a piano in the house even though I never learned. We were really big fans of dolls houses so we made our own. They were rough and ready. We built them in cardboard boxes and made very tiny furniture for them—everything was miniature. We were obsessed with them.

…THERE WASN’T MUCH OUTSIDE SPACE IN ARMY QUARTERS BUT WE ALL PLAYED OUTSIDE. I wasn’t aware that we were restricted by space because the doors were open I was always in and out of everybody else’s houses. There’s a sense of instant connection with army kids, which you don’t get anywhere else.