'Recipe for a New Mam (From a Family Cookbook)' by Denise Bayes

Take Dolly, freshly married to Stan, a joiner working long hours in shipyards on the bustling River Wear.

Add new baby daughter, curled under a hand-knitted blanket in a second-hand pram. Warm in a strip of late-summer sunshine.

Cream together the anxiety of motherhood with the heavy silence of the house until breathing becomes stifled.

Fold in the missed camaraderie of the lasses at the paper mill, the buzz of life before marriage.

Add a single high-pitched squeal from the bairn outside.

Stir in unknown quantities of maternal instinct.

Remove daughter from pram and drizzle a stream of kisses onto the tiny perfect  blonde head.

Bake, squashed together in the backyard, spine pushed against the warm bricks of the coalhouse.

Serve with happy gurgles of a contented baby bouncing on mam’s knee.