“paid for with a coin-operated meter. When the officials came round, the money was tipped out on to the kitchen table, counted and piled into pound stacks. Mum watched the counting process like a hawk, hoping there was more money than the bill required – meters were viewed as bonus moneyboxes. Every Friday night, Dad brought home his wages, and Mum dived in first. She put some aside in a teapot for the rent, then Dad would go to the fish-and-chip shop and queue for an hour: fish and chips was every family’s end-of-week treat. We often ran out of cash in our household so Mum had a slate at the corner shop and an account at the Co-op, which rewarded her with”