This last week, Saturday 9 March, to be precise, I went to watch a football match in London. Queen’s Park Rangers v Middlesborough. Middlesborough is my husband, Angus’ team because he was brought up in the area. It is a love he has passed on to our youngest son.

I went mainly to see our son and his family rather than the football. I’m of the opinion that the sport we follow or watch is often that we have contact with as children or youngsters and gets ingrained into us. It certainly worked with my husband who used to attend Middlesborough matches with his Dad and our son who grew to love the team, and support it because of my husband. My oldest son doesn’t follow football but then he doesn’t really watch any sport.

I was brought up with a sister who loved horses and riding. We would follow the hunt every Boxing day and she often joined it. Then as we got a bit older my sister and I would attend the local Point-to-Point races – amateur racing of a kind. She still goes racing regularly, and gives stabling to race horses.

Although I am a little scared of horses and often fell off them, I still love to see them move and place the occasional bet. Therefore this weekof the Cheltenham Jump Racing Festival, 12-15 March, is much more to my taste.

I have already enjoyed the first two days racing in 2024 and the domination of the iconic Irish trainer, Willie Mullins, although our local trainer, Kim Bailey, did have a winner too in Chianti Classica.

I also enjoy Formula One after being introduced to the sport in my youth by a former boyfriend. Although at the moment it has become a little too predictable being largely dominated by one man, the Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen. On a local level regarding motorsport, there is the Wyedean rally in the Forest of Dean, which has delighted us as a family on several occasions and even led to a couple of articles in the past for me with technical support from my husband, and the Prescott Hill Climb.

As writers we write about the things that interest us, our passions. These might be dictated by our childhood passions or things we have read about or studied, but these are things which shape us, our individuality and our writing.