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SOUL searching TASMINA PERRY susan swarbrick
I moved schools for the second time in three years and I remember feeling lonely because all of the other children had established their friendships. That was the age when my mum always says I changed from being a serious and solitary child to being outgoing and gregarious. I needed to do that in order to make friends and since then have always been in the thick of it.
The first time my heart was broken ...
I went to a party with someone I rather liked and two hours later noticed that a good friend had gone off with him. She knew I liked him as well. There was a bit of a to-do and, although she and I remained friends afterwards, we weren't as close. I never did get together with the gentleman concerned.
The biggest adversity I have overcome ...
I almost died from carbon monoxide poisoning in my 20s. I had gone to stay with my parents for the weekend. My brother lived down the road and came round in the morning to pick up a jumper. My mum got up to see him, but then she realised she wasn't feeling well and had a pounding headache. To this day she doesn't know what made her get us all – her, my dad, my little brother and I – out of the house, but she did. It was pretty horrific and I ended up in hospital in an oxygen chamber. Getting over that took a while. I was emotionally shaken for a long time.
My motto for life ...
Always walk on the sunny side of the street. I have a poster in my kitchen which says that – it's part of our house rules.
My soul mate is ...
My husband John. We met when we went for the same job on a magazine. He got the job, but they took me on as well. We became good friends and got together. The bizarre thing is we are both from the Manchester area, the same age and, even before we had met, had lived these odd parallel lives, going to the same places as teenagers and having similar career paths. We have been together 10 years and married for eight.
Not many people know that ...
I used to live next door to Nico from The Velvet Underground when I was a teenager. I have told a few muso friends and they always think it's pretty cool. Back then, though, she was just this lady who my dad helped lug a piano up the stairs. She used to sit on the front step and have a cigarette.
The most inspiring book I've read was ...
The American children's classic The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It's a parable about the circle of life and after reading it you want to call up your parents and tell them how much you love them. I have a little tear every time I read it.
Something I wish I'd done earlier ...
Learned to play the piano. I've just started learning and we got a piano a few months ago. It's an uphill struggle. My son Fin, who's six, seems to be picking it up quicker than I am.
My all-time favourite YouTube clip ...
Fenton the Dog. It is hilarious – I absolutely love it. We live two minutes walk from Richmond Park where it was filmed and I keep wandering about hoping I'll bump into Fenton. We haven't yet but I live in hope.
My childhood hero was ...
Merrill Osmond. I should really have fancied Donny but I didn't, I fancied the slightly chubby ginger one standing at the back. When I was four I had a poster of Merrill torn from a magazine that I used to put under my pillow at night.
The place I most like to call home ...
Until recently I always used to refer to my parent's house in Manchester as home. I stopped doing that when they divorced four or five years ago. Subsequently our house in London has become the family hub for Christmas and other big occasions.
Perfect Strangers by Tasmina Perry is published by Headline Review on July 19, priced £12.99. Her novel, Private Lives, is out now, priced £6.99.
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