Jan's interview

What three adjectives would you use to describe yourself?
Lovable, Luscious, Loquacious

What are your greatest achievements?
Having my son, surviving the 80's and not murdering my ex-boyfriend!

What's your favourite smell?
Lemon

What's your favourite work of art?
My son

What book would you like everyone to read?
No Black Sparrows by Namba Roy

What website would you like everyone to visit? Why?
www.ruralblackwomen.com, but you can't yet, because I haven't got it up and running yet. Why? I think the address speaks for itself

What is your favourite sound?
The sound of the sea

If you were an animal, what animal do you think you would be?
A Leopardess

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Lie very still whilst watching a tower of dvds

How many languages do you speak and why?
French, because I'm a hopeless romantic, German, because of my childhood pen pal Biggi & Jamaican Patois because I can.

What would heaven be like if you were in charge?
All the mums would be waited on hand and foot by their teenage offspring, who would do so happily without complaint

When and where are/were you happiest?
Sitting outside my grandmother's little house in Effort District Jamaica August 1986.

Something you are never without?

A good story.

What is your most appealing habit?
Laughing loudly

And your least appealing habit?
Shouting loudly

What do you like/dislike most about your appearance?
I like my high cheek bones, love my dreadlocks and the fact that they're going grey!

What music did you inherit from your parents? What music would you like to pass on to the next generation?
My parents gave me Reggae, Soul and Jim Reeves. I'd pass on the music of Ali Farka Toure, Jill Scott and Kouame Sereba

What music do you enjoy listening to/playing most?
Anything that makes me dance, sing or cry

If you could pass one law that was guaranteed to be enacted what would it be?
All sanitary products for women should be free, whether they have wings or not!

What lesson of life would you like to pass on to people younger than yourself?
Learn to listen deeply, before speaking.

If a young person asked you for advice about becoming a storyteller what would you say to them?
Tell the stories you love, be honest and don't blame the audience

How would you like to be remembered?
As a person who always had time for others but didn't suffer fools gladly

If I hadn't been a storyteller I would probably have been a ......
Plumber

What more do you want to achieve?
More love, more laughter, more bloody money please.

Who is the living person you most admire?
My Mum

Which people have been most influential in your life?
Charlie Moritz from Manchester Youth Theatre & the people who truly love me

Who has been the best teacher you have ever had?
Mrs Wadden, my English teacher from Whalley Range High School for girls Manchester

Something that few people know about you.
I hate milk

What lessons have you learned about life? What people think about you can also be the bars to your own personal prison. Confidence is everything I you could right one wrong that was done in the past, what would it be? There are too many to choose just one

If you could travel back in time where would you go and why?
I like it here in the present actually. I'm having the best time of my life!

What question would you have liked me to ask you?
What is your favourite film

And your answer?
I love many films, but the one I saw and loved most recently was KWAIDAN a film of Japanese Ghost stories, Wonderful!

OR......

What are you having?

And your answer?
A gin & Tonic with extra lemon and a packet of pork scratchings, please.