In my other life, when not hurtling through novel manuscripts or chasing around after babies, I sell dolls. The Deepings Dolls, in their hundreds of variations of time period, character and costume detail, have been part of my life for more than two decades. My mother Jilli started painting for them when I was little, and she was putting herself through Art School. She continued to paint in the evenings even once I was a teenager and she was back working full time.

When Raeli was a...