My mum died in July last year. She would have been 100 this year. She was an amazing character who set me on my road to vegetarianism at a time when it was really hard to be so unconventional - I was born in the 1950s. I always had a natural dislike of meat and eggs etc. as a child and Mum remembered me as a baby turning my head away when she tried to feed me egg. When I was 11 she suggested I stopped eating meat altogether - I virtually had anyway but she gave it her ‘Mum seal of approval!’ She bought me Walter and Jenny Fleiss’s Vegetarian Cookery Book and encouraged me to cook for myself, which I did. I was never tempted ever to touch any animal product again and became completely vegan some years ago.

My mother [Barbara] was an amazing home cook. She would tell me where everything came from. As an animal lover I didn't want to eat meat and didn't really like it anyway. It was treated as a phase that I would get over. When I stopped eating meat she researched nutrition and became an excellent vegetarian cook. The rest of the family would always want some of mine as well as the meat dishes! I have lots of recipes I can make and think of her always. I was so lucky. One favourite was chickpea and apricot casserole served with brown rice and plain yogurt, amongst many others!