Tanya figured significantly in the life of novelist Lesley Thomson or is it the other way around? They both grew up in the same road and I recall Tanya credited Lesley's mother May (a former headteacher) as a tutor and mentor during her 'O' levels. Lesley was a bit older - nothing now in relative terms - but in pre-teenage years someone four years older was practically grown-up and Lesley was looked up to as someone both fun and clever and wise.
Lesley's latest novel The Detective's Secret mentions Tanya in the author's acknowledgements and the settings in the story in Chiswick and Hammersmith are all places very familiar to both Lesley and Tanya.
