Jenny Field can't understand why anyone would ever want to remain in their provincial home town, and escaped from Huddersfield as soon as she could....

Jenny Field

Every memory Jenny Field has of her native Huddersfield is a bad one, and she simply can't think of anything positive about the place. "It was the attitudes, the stifling atmosphere and the negativity of it all that I hated most".

Jenny remembers having these feelings as a child, although she didn't admit her feelings to her family. "I don't think it's a very acceptable attitude to have. Most people seem to have fond memories of the place they were born in, or quite sentimental memories, and to absolutely detest it as much as I did is fairly unusual". Jenny wanted to be anywhere else, especially after she started reading and listening to the radio - it gradually dawned that places outside Huddersfield might be different, people might think and speak differently.

Jenny doesn't sound like a 'Huddersfield girl', and to some extent never did because her grandfather who brought her up came from Staffordshire and spoke abit differently. She didn't have the broad Yorkshire accent of her schoolmates, and was tormented by them because of it.

Jenny never really liked the local accent, and she and her cousin attended elocution lessons. Her teachers didn't really do much to encourage Jenny to broaden her horizons. "It was very much expected that girls like myself would, if we were lucky, pass a few exams and work in the office of one of the engineering companies that were in Huddersfield at the time".

Jenny had always wanted to try acting, so at 16 she joined a local amateur dramatic society, one of the great humiliations of her life - they patronised her, embarrassed her and made it obvious that she was of a different class. She joined the Youth Theatre instead, and finally felt that she was worthy of respect for what she could do and what she was. Once she knew people, off she went.

Before she actually came to London Jenny had a very romantic view of the capital, acquired from her childhood reading. Though people found the remnants of Jenny's accent hilarious they nevertheless accepted her. "It wasn't so much a desire to live in London. I wanted to be a different person. I didn't want to be one of these tight-lipped and joyless people. I wanted to be warm and outgoing and give people hugs". Though Jenny wanted to be like this, she found it difficult having been brought up not really touching people.

Jenny's grandparents didn't visit her in London, though she went back up at times to see them. She still occasionally has recurring dreams of being trapped in Huddersfield and isn't able to get out. She remembers saying at the time she left that she would rather die than live in Huddersfield again. She finds it mystifying and irritating when people have excessive pride in their home towns.