Willy Russell: A life in writing

I was brought up in post-war rationing years in a close-knit working-class estate near Liverpool – it was supposed to be knocked down but there was so little housing! My mother was an assistant at Rainhill, a psychiatric hospital, while my father was a miner, insurance man, roving librarian, factory worker, then shop owner. My writing has undoubtedly benefited from the women in my life, including my play agent Peggy Ramsay, my wife Annie who was always a great script reader, and my teacher, Jean Collingwood, who was a great support when I went back to do A-levels, aged 21. When I was a hairdresser at 17 in 1964, I liked listening to women's take on the world. At home with all my aunts and my sister, it was a female-dominated family because the men were out doing shift work.