My son Bill has been doing our family tree for a school project and we've signed up to an ancestry website. I always knew I had Irish ancestry (through my grandfather) but have learned we have Scottish and Welsh ancestry too, through my grandmother (who died before I was born). It reminds me that the idea of nationality is absurd. There are no nationalities. Just human beings who live on different parts of the earth's surface. Some of us migrated away from Africa and developed some physical differences due to environment and climate. If we traced our ancestry back far enough, we would find that we all stem from the same group. Any distinctions between human beings are created by the mind. We are all essentially one and the same, physically and spiritually.

At the same time, it was interesting to find out about my background. In 1806, my 3rd great-grandfather David Taylor got married to Elizabeth Pearson, in Manchester. On their marriage certificate they both marked their names with crosses, instead of signatures. I found it so moving to see their shaky, faint Xs on the certificate. They were obviously illiterate - and here am I, a few generations later, as an author!

For generations the Taylors lived in a poor and tough part of Manchester called Newton Heath. It's sad to think of the hardship they lived through, and the lack of opportunity to fulfil their potential or explore (and even just enjoy) themselves. It makes me feel very grateful to have those opportunities myself and gives me even more motivation to use my freedom in a positive way. Somehow I feel my ancestors hovering around me, supporting me, encouraging me to fulfil my potential and make a contribution to the world on their behalf.