Behind the Seams: The perfect gift for fans of The Great British Sewing Bee

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As a result this book was an amazing insight into a life that I would have loved to have lived had I the flare or basic artistic skill.

Some of Esme’s stories from her childhood and particularly her own and her siblings boarding school days were hilarious.The ’90s saw another career move, this one into costumes for films such as ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ and ‘The Beach’, before she moved onto the small screen herself.

There are occasional delicious moments of name dropping - she dated and moved in rockstar circles, and has designed costumes for all sorts of films - but she never cashes in on these, and is unwaveringly lovely about everyone she's met. What a character, the people she has worked with in the fashion and film industry was mind blowing, as well as partying with so many celebrities. Her work has been featured in a range of magazines and newspapers including Vogue , ID , The Face , The Sunday Times and so much more.

A celebration of a creative life lived differently, Behind the Seams is a reminder that it’s never too early, or too late to pick up a needle and start stitching in a new direction. She's honest and warm-hearted, she's highly individual - has been all her life, has stuck to it too - and as such my admiration for her rocketed. She makes friendship with people she meets at different stages of her career and seems to have completely balanced relationships with them irrespective of age and they value one another's experience and expertise. It is more of a memoir than an autobiography, I would say, in that it is a chronological collection of recollections and stories (I don't think she does 'deep' - we never, for example, learn of the ways in which her mother was a 'bad mum'), but of its kind it's very good. In the last series in particular, there have been some tantalising hints about her previous life as a designer for the avant garde Swanky Modes, so I was really looking forward to learning more.