Although I’d heard of people in the 1950s who had got into trouble for being in a gay relationship, I never knew of any in my time. Anyway, after every single person we mentioned the survey to agreed they too had hideous surveys for house they purchased, we picked ourselves up and moved forward.

The pair broke into the mainstream with a successful 1974 Edinburgh run of An Evening with Hinge and Bracket – a purported recital that began with the pair handing the audience complimentary sherries. His enthusiasm is so infectious I grin madly back and we sort of do a mini-dance, arms waving up and down. This entry was posted in theatre, Uncategorized and tagged Audrey, book, celebrities, comedy, Dame Hilda Brackett, Dear Ladies, Dr Evadne Hinge, entertainment, George Logan, Hinge and Brackett, interview, light opera, musical, opera, Patrick Fyffe, stage, The Dowager’s Oyster, theatre. She’s always going to have to work that but harder at things like this and it’s a shame because she loves sport, but it’s not always accessible as she can’t keep up with others and is a bit fragile (a good example would be that she loves kicking a ball around, but the reality is, playing actual football she will either never get a look in (too slow) or will get hit/kicked/knocked and be upset and want to stop).In an interview in 2008 with the Gay men's magazine Bent, Logan explained that he and Fyffe based the Hinge and Bracket characters on English character types such as Joyce Grenfell and Margaret Rutherford. In the past I’d groped around places on the fringes, in that very malodorous public toilets way, and thought, ‘Is this what my life is going to be? The characters embodied the stoical pluck of the am-dram, but the pair’s charming self-mockery was born from affection and a genuine love for the music they played (and sometimes murdered). Sharing positives, expressing how much we love and appreciate her, but it’s also worth talking about the not-so-super-fantastic things about having a child with needs like Audrey’s. Like you do at a rock concert, when your nerves get taken over by the force of the noise and you just have to surrender.

In crowded areas, she could get lost or knocked over, roads with driveways or entries to parking areas etc are unsafe and it’s especially uncomfortable if she is able to turn a corner miles ahead of me. You’d still be annoyed when she expects you to have watch Britain’s Got Talent/Coronation Street and get ready to discuss it. that I have said “oh ill just read this page” and then carry on saying that over and over and i finished it last night. They did two run throughs of the dance and I felt a sense of relief that Audrey made it on stage and remembered the routine. Well, all kids are complex and can be kind but also mean… Audrey’s ability to be both wonderful and a pain in the butt is clearly something she has in common with neurotypical kids.

When I broke the news about my pregnancy to my parents, they were actually very happy they got a beautiful little boy, but they told me that giving him a girl's name is cruel. Where other parents of nine year olds are eyeing up how close they are to an independent kid… that feels a very long way off for us, because it is. An older badger meets a young cat on her usual trek up the mountain and they start a friendship, which leads to many more visits, until badger starts to become too old and tired for visits up the mountain and cat has to go alone… A tender ‘circle of life’ story.

If someone so much as mentions “Monday” Audrey will say what club she does and that she needs two snacks. We went to all the usual music groups, as well as some a bit more different (me singing in a grown up choir whilst Audrey rolled around) and we listened to music at home, watched music channels, learned sing and sign with Singing Hands and had a boogie on the regular.

It’s easy to keep a poker face when you’re wearing dark glasses and a hoodie and you’re looking off to one side. In the decades that followed, George would become loved as Dr Evadne Hinge, one half of the musical double-act Hinge and Brackett, but until that moment, any thoughts of a gay lifestyle, let alone a career in drag, had never seemed an option for the sprightly 76-year-old, who now runs a guest house in Le Dorat, France, with his partner Luigi Perone.

Logan and Perone settled in France, where they ran a guest house near Le Dorat in Limousin (now Nouvelle-Aquitaine). Rex of course has always known Audrey as his big sister, with no expectations of what that might mean (should she be cleverer, faster, stronger or bossier than him? After that, it was a bit more waiting around whilst Rex rehearsed tap and then we all went home for a three hour lunch break. Recommended by many, again, I was put off by it’s dated look, but it’s actually very upfront “…dying meant only that he would leave his body behind… his only worry was how his friends would feel when he was gone.Sadly, when we joined we knew the teacher running it was no longer continuing, so it was only for a few months, but it gave Audrey (and me) a lot of joy. It’s not an issue for us and hasn’t really been a big deal, since having a younger brother has “allowed” her to continue to enjoy younger pursuits… In the same way that a lot of children with older siblings will find themselves interested in things considered “too old” for them. I guess I would normally be talking about how far we’ve come since the surprise diagnosis postnatally.