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Hello!

Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy and are inspired by the stories I tell and the suggestions and thoughts I share. To find out more about what These Are The Heydays is all about, click here

- Diane

Felicity's best life lesson

Felicity's best life lesson

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If you're lucky you encounter wonderful people in your life who profoundly affect the course of your development. Felicity (92) is one of those people for me. I met her through work and she became not only my invaluable mentor and resolute supporter, but also a dear and much loved friend. She was one of the great journalists of her generation, a giant of Fleet Street (albeit one rather tiny in stature) at a time when women in senior positions were few and far between. As feisty and forthright today as she was the first time I met her nearly 20 years ago.


"My feelings about people are so sickly sweet I feel I should apologise for them, but I do find that the nicer you are to people, the nicer they are to you and the more you enjoy yourself. I’m 91 now, so it’s taken me a long time to get here, but I’ve found that the more you smile at people, the more they smile back at you. That sounds like something someone would embroider on a cushion, but it’s true. 

People are the most interesting thing in life

I wanted to be a journalist from the age of about 15. If you’re a good journalist you have to be interested in people. What else is there? Are you going to be interested in flowers? I mean, I like flowers, but I wouldn’t say they were the most interesting thing in life. People are the most interesting thing in life. And everybody is interesting. Sometimes people need a push up the bottom to get them going, but they develop better that way than if you turn your back on them."

Teresa on her greatest love

Teresa on her greatest love

The interfaith charity that inspires Ila

The interfaith charity that inspires Ila