This is the finished front and back covers for Little Paradise. The girl in the photograph is my mum taken in 1944 when she was 20. On the back is the blurb and a fashion illustration that my mum drew when she was 14. She was crazy about fashion. The end papers will feature more of her drawings.

My mum was way ahead of her time. In the forties, there was no such word as ‘teenager’. Young people in their teens were not recognised as a separate group like they are today. While other girls her age had to buy either children’s or ladies clothes to wear, my mother designed all of her own. She also designed clothes for her family and friends. She would buy the material at Myers, then have them made up by her dressmaker, Mrs Poon. In all the photographs of her, she is the most stylish.

Below is a picture taken in a dress that she designed when she was just 14.