‘Jesus is real! Some of my friends were ill – they prayed and got better. One person needed money and someone posted the exact amount they needed through the letterbox…’

My sister Sheila had become a ‘born-again Christian’ and couldn’t wait to tell me about it on her visits home from university. I was pretty good at looking as if I wasn’t interested (she told me later) but she was determined to tell me anyway. She was definitely the ‘religious type’ – I remembered that she had dabbled with Christianity when we were young but that had worn off.