My influences: Hazel Austin (my mother)

My mother was born Hazel Jessie Pearl Binding in Ystradmynach in 1917, Monmouthshire. Her parents were Lucy Totterdell, whose father was a master baker in Taunton, and Francis Leonard Binding, from a seafaring family in Watchet, both in Somerset. They had moved to South Wales in search of work - my grandfather worked as a miner - but returned to live in Watchet in around 1925/6.

My mother was awarded a place at the newly built Minehead Grammar School which she attended until she returned to the primary school in Watchet to learn the skills of a teacher. Photographs taken of her in her school uniform suggest that she was very proud to be there and she always talked about the School with great affection. Her favourite teacher was Mr Traherne (which she always pronounced "Tray-Herne") and, when I gained my place at Bristol Grammar School my mother was delighted and took me to Minehead to show me off to Mr Traherne. 

On leaving the primary school in Watchet she moved to the primary school in Westbury-Sub-Mendip where she made friends with Myrtle Northam, a farmer's daughter, and they remained friends until my mother died. When my mother was still teaching in the village Myrtle gave birth but declined to marry her daughter's father. Despite her position my mother's friendship was unswayed which, I suspect, must have given rise to some adverse comments in the village. My mother's steadfast support for her friend is one of the things of which I am most proud.

When my younger brother Martin also moved to Bristol Grammar School my mother decided to fulfil a long held ambition to train as a domestic science teacher. She attended college in Bristol and started teaching, part time, when she qualified.

My mother loved writing - when I was at school she would spend Sunday afternoons writing letters to her friends and family - these were always substantial and I suspect would have required "large letter" stamps under the current pricing structure. She had recipes published in the Bristol Evening Post, a number of articles published in "The Lady" and contributed a piece to an anthology of memoirs edited by the Marquess of Bath of the time. No doubt there were other things of which I was unaware.