I don’t believe anyone could describe me as a snob. However, I do believe that the saying “There’s a place for everything, and everything has its place” 32 ______ equally well to human beings.

I was born in Yorkshire in Victorian times and I can safely 33 ______ that during this period my family played a considerable role. My father, Sir Raymond Hardcastle, was not only an inventor and industrialist of great imagination and skill, but he also built up one of the nation's most successful companies. At the same time he always 34 ______ his workers as if they were all part of the family.

Indeed it was this example that he 35 ______ , whenever he dealt with those less fortunate than himself that has been the benchmark by which I have attempted to conduct my own life.

I have no brothers and just one elder sister, Amy. 36 ______ there were only a couple of years between us, I cannot pretend that we were even particularly close, perhaps because I was an outgoing child, while she was shy and reserved. Her only interests in life were gardening, crochet work and the occasional visit to Scarborough festival. She never 37 ______ an attempt to get out of the family circle.

Gerald and I first met when I had been a houseguest at Lord Fanshaw's country home in Norfolk. As it turned 38 ______ we had much in common. We were married in July 1895 and our son Guy was born a year later. My father simply doted on Guy and left everything to him.