Celebrity Memories

“August 10th 1987 was the day my little brother was born and I was so excited to be a big sister. Jack’s father is my step-dad and on the day Jack was born I was with my Dad who was really happy for me and made me a special coin to mark the occasion. I remember being proud not just that I finally wasn’t an only child any more but also that my parents had moved on to better things since their divorce. Now I have a huge family with lots of brothers and sisters so I guess that date was the start of the happy ending.”

“It was Christmas and I was in India. Dad’s office was throwing a party for the employees’ kids and at one end of the room was a huge Christmas tree surrounded by loads of presents. One of them caught my eye - it was a bicycle, all wrapped up but you can’t disguise a bicycle! And there, on a big label hanging from the handlebars, was my name - HARRY! (This was many years before I changed my name to Cliff!).

I couldn’t hide my excitement and told my Dad. My dad’s reply was devastating. “How do you know it’s yours”, he said. “You’re not the only boy here whose name is Harry.

Later on all of us were seated around the tree as Father Christmas gave out the gifts. It seemed forever before he got to the bicycle. “This is for Harry,” he said. Long pause…..”Harry Webb!” My heart leapt. It was my best Christmas ever!

“ One of my best childhood memories was always making dens in the field next to our house! I was the VERY BOSSY leader of the kids gang in our street and would make everyone clear vast amounts of bramble and weeds until we had the perfect hiding place!! I took great pride in it and played house almost every day. After travelling two hours by car to see us I would make my grandparents immediately don their wellies and trudge across the field to marvel at my spotless hiding place and serve air tea!! During the summer months we would play until the sun went down and then run home, absolutely filthy, to tea and a hot bath!! I remember feeling so free, safe and happy. We are endeavouring to bring up our daughter Lexi to feel the same.”

“One of my most vivid childhood memories is being bitten on the hand by a goat at Golders Green Children’s Zoo!”

“My favourite memory is of dressing up my little sister Jessie as a guy and then standing outside Belsize Park station shouting 'penny for a guy' and getting lots of spare change which we used to buy what we thought were the best fireworks in town!”

“Many a Sunday afternoon I went on fishing expeditions on my father’s crossbar. I don’t remember great creels of fish being landed; perhaps the occasional trout and the odd flounder - nevertheless - happy days… ”

“Eating toffee apples on Weston Supermare beach in the rain - waiting for the tide to come in...”

“ One of my favourite childhood memories is also my earliest (I think). I was three, in hospital in Edinburgh to get my tonsils out.  I was in an adult bed and had to climb up a fish tank alongside to get into it. My parents still remind me that I threw the porridge at the nurse when she tried to make me eat it.  To this day I can't stand porridge (shaming, for a Scot) but I'm happy to say that my attitude towards nurses has improved by leaps and bounds.”

“ My father had just come out of the hospital after a long illness from which he was expected to die. When he felt better after a long recuperation, he took me up the Pentland Hills on a sunny spring day. I was around eight. Nothing much happened, we went on the ski lift, played with a stray dog, I jumped into a pile of snow which was muddy underneath and I was a mess. He didn't mind. We didn't say anything about his illness, we were just enjoying the day, but we were both very, very happy to be together”

“I remember standing on a stage in a hotel at the age of two dressed up as a cowboy insisting that I wanted to play the piano and plonking on it for ages, having a whale of a time. I don’t think they could get me off it!”

“I grew up in a house with a long hall way. My abiding memory as a child returning from school is staring through the mottled window on the door as I rang the bell, then seeing my mother chasing up the hall to open it as if it was the most exciting thing she’d ever done. And that first hello hug would always put a huge smile on my face. She always looked so delighted to welcome me home. It was as simple as that.”

“My favourite childhood memory is from when I was growing up in Indonesia. It’s sitting on the beach, watching smoke coming out of Krakatoa tower, the volcano; and listening to the crickets chirping in the grasses. I used to love picking up pumice stones on the beach that had flown out of Krakatoa tower.”

“My favourite memories are of the school holidays - my friends & I would spend hours making up dance routines to our favourite music & then show them to our Mums. We would put out chairs & make it look like we had a real audience. We loved it & the funny thing is my little girl Lilly now does it to me!”

“I must have been seven or eight and it was a school trip to visit the Natural History Museum.  We each had to pay something ridiculous like 75p and I was so excited because I knew I would get salami sandwiches (I loved salami). When we got there one of the first things I saw and the only thing I remember was the massive, gigantic big blue whale.  I just could not get my head round how big it was and that it really was blue, and it didn’t eat meat.  I was not afraid just in awe.  I have been back since then and I still love it.”

“Going with my four brothers to the beach for days out because we lived in central London”

“ I remember my Mum buying me some new roller skates - ones with 4 wheels. I loved them! Also playing on my Grifter. Secretly though I wanted a Chopper!”

“Aged 5 making fairy cakes with butter icing and butterfly wings, and getting to lick the spoon. Mum was superb; she always encouraged us.””

“I remember my first time in the mountains, which was also my first ski trip. I must have been about 5 years old, in an all-in-one ski suit, big warm mittens and what seemed like giant skis (although they were probably only about 2ft long!). I loved the immense size of the mountains and how small everyone looked from high up in the chair lifts. I remember the bitter cold stinging my face as I tore down the slopes, loving the freedom and the speed, but completely out of control. Most of all, I remember having my father there to pick me up, dust me off and get the snow out from down the back of my neck when I invariably ended up facedown in a snowdrift. The thrill and rapture of the mountains hasn’t left me to this day.”

“I remember being really young, about 8 I think and all the family, mum, dad and Claire (our little sis) went to a Haven Holiday park which was so much fun - the best thing about it was when Manda and I were in a dancing competition and we made up a routine to one of our favourite songs, Jackson 5’s “Don’t Blame It On The Sunshine”! We actually won the competition and we’ve still got it on video! Its so funny watching it back now, it makes me laugh so much every time!”

“One of my best childhood memories was going to my first ever live concert!! I went with my Dad and my Grandad to watch a great Scottish band called Deacon Blue and I knew all of the lyrics word for word. I was the youngest audience member and my Grandad was the oldest... I remember thinking... I want to be like that lead singer one day!!! I was overwhelmed... It was AMAZING!!”

“One of favourite childhood memories is spending day after day with my brother on long bike rides. We camped overnight in people's gardens and grew up with a sense of the outdoors being a wonderful place to go, full of wild places for kids to run. ”

“I still remember being told bed-time stories by my mother when I was about six years old. She was an unusual woman though and used to tell me about the horror films that she had been to see. So I was brought up on gory descriptions of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and (my favourite) The Fly. By the time she turned out the lights, I was far too scared to get to sleep which perhaps made the whole exercise slightly pointless - but I did love those stories. I still do.. ”

“One of my favourite childhood memories is being at the brook at the bottom of my garden. On the other side of the brook was another family with three boys we used to play with, so we made a bridge from big logs so we could invade each others gardens. However, the boys were all quite badly behaved and they went through a phase of removing the logs so it became a challenge to cross the brook. It was all good fun, until my mum tried to get across once and fully fell in! We found it hilarious, she was drenched, I don't think she did though! I occasionally see the boys out and about and it's always the first thing we remember!”

“When I was a kid I used to live in a little village in Buckinghamshire and we lived next to a farm. I became great friends with 'Fat Ed' the farmers son (who's now no longer fat!) and we used to spend long summer days in the back of trailers bumping around the farm behind his dads tractor....and building hay stack dens in the hay barn - what a great life. Anyway, one summer, when we were about 12, I had a real crush on 'Fat Ed's' sister - who wasn't fat at all! I always told Fat Ed that I'd marry her one day, so I was totally gutted when we caught her kissing one of the farm labourers in the hay barn… I honestly don't think I'll ever get over it!”