What I learned from my mother

Literary agent Jenny Brown, 56, was the founding director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Her mother Pauline, 84, was a single parent and teacher who taught her to love literature.

Books, poetry, words. My mother grew up in wartime Lincolnshire, starved of reading material, so she ensured that our childhood, spent in Edinburgh, a city famous for its literary connections, was full of books.

Easter was marked not by chocolate eggs, but by Easter novels. She read, and so we read. She had an incredible memory, reciting in full poems learnt at school. I was named for one of her childhood favourites: Jenny kissed me when we met/Jumping from the chair she sat in.

She was a master of communication and wrote the most brilliant letters to teachers with ever more inventive reasons for absences. Nobody read the lesson at church like her, with the same nuanced intelligence and perfect phrasing. She revelled in language, illustrating for us the choice Shakespeare had between Latinate form and Anglo Saxon: This my hand will the multitudinous seas incarnadine/making the green one red.

Every summer we made the long drive south to her parents. With no iPods or audiotapes, we would sing when we weren't fighting. The songs were from the English tradition of the Greenwood: 'Two, two the lily-white boys/dress them all in green heigh-ho.' But she also adored the Scottish ballads. 'O where shall I get a skeely skipper /To sail this ship o mine?'

Children's literature was a particular passion: she introduced us to Narnia, the Moomins, and the Midnight Folk, and my boys to armoured bears, Stanley Yelnats and the Wild Things. Let the wild rumpus begin!

She was a huge support to me when I started at the Edinburgh Book Festival, and would happily step in to introduce any session, from the Beechgrove gardeners to literary novelists. The Spiegeltent used to be adorned by flowers from her garden.

Pauline had no real interest in - or time for - housework, so we lived in a happy creative mess, with baskets of knitting on the floor and piles of reference and poetry books on the table. I owe my love of literature and my life in books to her, and in turn it's influenced the way I've brought up my sons.

When she died last year, I treasured these words from a close friend who said: 'I look back on her influence on my childhood as a working professional woman at a time that was unusual, and her refreshing disregard for tidiness. She was behind something that I have always wanted but only recently achieved in my house - a room with a wall of books.'

STV Riverside Show presenter Jennifer Reoch, 25, said her mother Karen, 55, gave her the courage to choose a career in the media over a stable future as a lawyer.

My mum and I are really close; she is one of my best friends and I can talk to her about anything. She's now a classroom assistant, but she stayed at home and looked after me and my younger brother and sister when we were little. There was always a bowl of hot soup waiting for us at lunchtime. She taught me the value of family life.

Mum is behind my love of modern languages. She learned German at college and lived in Germany for a year. I followed in her footsteps and read French and Law at University. I was a bit unsure about doing my year abroad but she encouraged me to go and said I would never regret it as she had loved living in Germany. I went to France and she was right: I have never regretted it.

I get on so well with Mum that I'm happy living at home with her and Dad in Glasgow. Everything I ever learned was from my mum, but mostly to be determined and just get on with things. If I ever moaned about doing exams, she would tell me: 'You can do it. Stick in, don't give up.' Then she would give me a bit of a cuddle and I would get on with it.

As well as teaching me to persevere, she gave me the courage to do what I wanted to do. When I realised I didn't want to practise law, she was happy for me to give that idea up and go into the media, which is a less secure career.

I worked freelance doing production jobs at STV and the BBC, then eight months ago I was made presenter at the Riverside Show. I love my job, and Mum is my Number One fan. She and Dad watch me every night. She's always brutally honest if I'm repeating a word too often or my hair is not quite right, but I trust her 100 per cent to give me honest criticism.

Bethany Sutherland, 17, from Golspie, is the youngest netball player to be capped for Scotland, and is in the long squad for the Netball World Cup. She learned a love of the game from her mother Pat, 52, a former England internationalist.

I used to watch Mum play when I was younger and listen to all the stories about her triumphs playing for England. I was also impressed by the way she kept in touch with her netball friends. The team spirit and strong friendships she experienced made me want to play.

I started playing netball when I was in first year of secondary, when I was 13, with a Dingwall team called the Fyrish Flyers. Mum was there on the first day, encouraging me and giving me coaching tips.

We play together in the same team, me as goal defence and Mum wing attack or goal attack. When we play against each other we are fiercely competitive - she's always trying to beat me while I try to stop her. She was so proud of me when I was capped for Scotland, and she's thrilled about me being picked for the Netball World Cup long squad in August.

She's the most caring mum in the world and is always there for me. She taught me never to give up. I've always admired her work ethic and determination and I want to follow in her footsteps as a PE teacher.

Mum has taught me to cope with the pressures of competing at an international level in netball. She always says: 'When you go out on court, remember these girls are just the same as you. They will make mistakes too.'

She has taught me that you can always learn from losing and do better next time.

On Mother's Day I'll get her a card, cook her breakfast and try to make the day really special.

Blogger and journalist Ellen Arnison is a 47-year-old mother-of-three who lives in Bridge of Weir. In her twenties she sailed half way around the world - a feat she puts down to her mother Margaret Barr, 72.

When my brother, sister and I were growing up Mum let us make our own mistakes. As a mother myself, I realise how hard that is. She instilled in us a sense of self-preservation and the ability to risk-assess. We all had adventures: I sailed across the Atlantic and around the Caribbean, my sister backpacked around the world, and my brother joined the army.

I think she was slightly envious of the freedoms we enjoyed. Her father was quite a force and set down strict limits. Mum is quietly strong and she is generally good at not sticking her oar in, although she has effective ways of making her opinion felt. When she does speak up, you know it's important.

When we were little she was a stay-at-home mother. For a while she owned a book shop, which was a dream come true for us as she instilled a love of reading from an early age. She was good at choosing the right book for the right child.

My mum is always the first person I phone if there's a crisis. I was living in Gran Canaria when I had my eldest, who is now 15. I was floundering and came home. Mum was good at giving the right kind of practical support. She knew when I needed to be sat down and fed a boiled egg and toast while she did my laundry.

My brother Nathan died at the age of 38 out of the blue one day when he was out for a jog. He had a previously undetected heart condition. My mum, sister and I became closer. I see other families falling out and I just can't understand why. Life is too short.

She has seven grandchildren - all boys - and seems to revel in the mayhem and pandemonium when we are all together. I've learned from my mother that when life throws a curve ball to go away and do a bit of thinking and research. Then you pick yourself up and dust yourself down and get on with it. What choice have you got?

Lynne Kennedy, 46, of Glasgow, produces Business Woman Scotland magazine and organises networking events. Her mother, Moira, 76, has supported her career since she started out as an interior designer.

Mum has always been behind me no matter what I do. The most important lesson I learned from her is never to tell anyone anything, and that way they will never have a reason to talk about you. I still edit what I say if I don't know someone very well. Dad calls us a couple of secret squirrels.

Nanny Zoe Prentice, 33, of Renfrew, was encouraged to look after children by her mother, Agnes, 65.

Mum was brilliant with my brother and me when we were little - she was always doing art projects, playing games and taking us on days out. We always had great fun and that is how I approach looking after my charges. I don't like them to sit in front of the computer or telly but to be out and about, keeping active and experiencing different things.

Mum has been a fantastic role model because she went back to college in her 40s to do an HNC in business studies and start a new career. I really admire her for that. She's inspired me to go back to college next year to study fitness and nutrition. I'd like to use my experience as a nanny to become a children's personal trainer.

It was Mum who persuaded me to go into childcare when I was 21, when I got my first job in a nursery. She said I was naturally good with children, and she was right: I love looking after children and I've never looked back.

I learned from Mum's example how to be patient with children. And she taught me to work hard - she's a grafter and so am I. She also taught me not to judge people based on their age, sex or race, and to treat people the way I wanted to be treated. My mum has always been a caring, compassionate person; she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro two years ago in memory of a friend who died from cancer and raised £15,000 for a hospice. I'm grateful to my mum for giving me a good upbringing and teaching me good values. I couldn't wish for a better mother.

Sara Hunt, 52, who runs Glasgow-based publishing house Saraband, learned the value of education from her mother, Maureen, 80.

'Education, education' is my mother's guiding principle. Her parents believed that girls should be offered the same opportunities as boys, and Mum broke gender conventions when she gained a biology degree at Manchester University. Mum, a teacher and, subsequently, governor at a special school, encouraged not only her daughters, but all her charges.

Mum grew up during the Second World War, when their scarcity accorded books a status that's hard to imagine today. She read the same ones over and over, and amongst several favourites she particularly treasured Swallows and Amazons. This she could almost recite aloud.

Mum's childhood books were borrowed from the library, so it's not surprising that we visited our local one so regularly. But it wasn't all books and homework. My parents came by a 'pre-loved' caravan, and found a Lakeland hill farmer willing to accommodate it. We spent many happy summer weeks there. I think Mum found the privations of catering for six in a tiny space - with limited facilities and water only from a nearby stream - a small price to pay for the liberation from housework. She sent us out brambling, climbing trees, nurturing our independence and a love for nature.

Both my parents have always been hugely proud of their four daughters, with no regrets about our lack of brothers. This may have taken some secret getting-over for Dad, an avid footballer, but for Mum, there was no such conflict. On occasion, was there even the very hint of a smile when our boy cousins couldn't match up to our exam results? Quite possibly.