He seemed an aloof and cold figure, one who believed children should be seen and not heard, and a man who didn’t relish physical contact or shows of affection. At one point in the programme, she recounted her relationship with her father, and she spoke of the fact that she and her siblings had spent their childhoods being afraid of him. One aspect of her younger days touched me very deeply, however. She grew up during World War II and was raised in a large house in the English countryside, with parents who gave her everything they possibly could and did their best to ensure she had a happy childhood. I say ‘celebrity’ because she seems a very down-to-earth and unpretentious woman who would probably not relish the drama that goes with being a famous face, and this programme about her life gave me a real insight into where she gets her grounded outlook and her dedication to her family and her craft. Yesterday evening, I watched a beautiful programme on BBC which followed the early life of a lady named Mary Berry, who is a ‘celebrity’ chef in the UK and, in recent years, in Ireland too. If this blog post had an editor, I’m sure she’d tell me to cut out all the waffle, and get to the point. I think my collection of her work is pretty much complete now!īut this is all preamble. The first Winterson book I read was ‘Sexing the Cherry’, which was on a course I did at university – I read it, loved it, and have never looked back. Every book she writes is a perfectly crafted jewel, and she does things with language that most people can’t even dream of. (By the by, if you’re not familiar with Jeanette Winterson’s work, I really can’t recommend her more highly.

I’d been searching for a title for today’s blog post, and when my eye fell on her words, I knew I’d found it. I’ve just seen a wonderful Tweet from one of my literary idols, Jeanette Winterson, in which she used the phrase ‘Love = Risk’.

Sexing cherry