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

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I’m one of those people who, if I’m offered the chance to do something new, I’ll go for it. I don’t want to sit at home; I like being stimulated. You don’t have to do anything extreme – I’m not flying aeroplanes; I’m only harnessing the knowledge I’ve acquired throughout my life. But I like to push myself. Even at 73, I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t.” In the '90s, she moved into designing costumes, creating Renee Zellweger's iconic bunny outfit in Bridget Jones, and dressing Leonardo DiCaprio and his co-stars in Romeo + Juliet.

The book didn't disappoint, you could "hear" her reading it to you as you went along. It is written just as she would speak and was very amusing at times. She also has a wonderful way of going off on a tangent. There is a sort of chronology to the book, but she isn't scared to nip off elsewhere if her thoughts go that way! I loved the little insights to 60s and 70s fashion and lifestyle, with lots of exciting name dropping. It is, however, quite reserved - although names are dropped throughout, don't expect lots of juicy stories about people, you definitely don't get them. I’d highly recommend if you’re a fan of Sewing Bee and just want to find out more about Esme, it was a really lovely read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Caroline Baker was the fashion editor at Nova magazine at the time and she loved our see-through plastic macs. She told us Helmut Newton would be keen to photograph them and asked me to send some drawings to him. I drew the macs on naked bodies – mainly because it was too hard to draw them over clothes. Well, he took it literally and that’s how he shot them in the end. [The fashion designer] Katharine Hamnett ended up coming into the shop to buy one. She currently resides in London, and despite her TV success, she still lives in the social housing she has rented since the 1980s after being made homeless.Bauer Consumer Media Ltd, Company number 01176085; Bauer Radio Limited, Company number: 1394141; Registered office: Media House, Peterborough Business Park, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA and H Bauer Publishing, Company number: LP003328; Registered office: The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road, London NW1 2PL Esme is not sure what else she would have done in life. She was partially deaf until she was seven when doctors discovered she had “glue ear”, a condition where the middle ear fills with fluid. Her life, in many ways, is the story of post-war Britain. Born in 1949, she spent her childhood mostly outside and very much unsupervised. She discovered sewing aged 7, and a passion was born. As a teenager, she made her way to London and Central St Martins, when her life truly began. Living in a squat with other young creatives, Esme made the most of the creative hey day '70s and '80s: watching Notting Hill Carnival with David Bowie, starting a clothing line called Swanky Modes with three friends and 50 quid each. 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. It also felt disconnected, we didn’t get to really know and see her, to feel any emotions. It was just a light collection of memories.

Whilst Young's life has been interesting (working on film dressmaking, cool!), there is nothing stand out to make this an amazing memoir. After sharing that her favourite garment to make herself is a petticoat, Esme added: "I make about 50% of my own clothes and then I also buy vintage, and go to charity shops. I would never buy anything online because you can’t feel the cloth."Hubby bought me Esme Young’s autobiography for my birthday as she always has such interesting snippets of stories dropped in the TV show (like sitting in a window with David Bowie) and I was keen to learn more about her career.