This is not a story of personal achievements and failures. It is more an attempt to bring to life the marvellous variety of people whose lives have touched mine. If in writing these memoirs I succeed in arousing in my readers a fraction of the interest and pleasure that I have enjoyed through contact with my family and friends, then I have also succeeded in paying the tribute that I owe to these dear people, most of whom have by now gone ahead before me. — Tina Rimmer, 1 May 2001