My story is a very long story and I could write a very long book about it. I started out in the chorus of a film, Oh! What a Lovely War, when I was 16 or 17 years old. It was the first film by Richard Attenborough and I was singled out, unbeknownst to me, to have a medium close-up, and the top agent in England saw me on film and said this girl is going to become a big star.

T.G. : You seem to have incredible discipline. Did you learn this in the ballet?

J.S.: Absolutely. There is no discipline like ballet. In the ballet you can't stop for a single day. If they give you two weeks off, you still have to do bar, stretch, strengthening and practice. In class, the discipline was such that, unless you were 10 minutes early for the class, you weren't even allowed in. . I learned how to do my own hair and make-up while I was in the ballet. I learned how to sew my own ballet shoes and how to embroider my own toe shoes, I even learned how to knit the warm-up gear. . I realized that if I could knit and sew my necessary ballet things, then I could knit and sew attractive things, not just useful things, so I started my own company when I was 17. I had been crocheting, knitting and embroidering and I showed my pieces to a shop in London. They went crazy for them and began ordering from me.

T.G.: It seems as though you have always worked.

J.S.: Yes I have. My father was a doctor, but any money that he had was spent on my education. While I was dancing, I needed to buy point shoes, because I went through about three pairs a week. They were very expensive because they had to be handmade. I always worked so I could purchase what I needed.

T.G.: Tell me about your mother.

J.S.: . My mother is 90 and she is absolutely incredible. She was born in Holland and she was known as being one of the most beautiful women in the country. Her name is Mieke Frankenberg. My mother had many tragedies in her life and at the age of 20, she married her first boyfriend and moved to Indonesia, where her husband worked on a tea plantation. She had a very abusive first marriage. She escaped from her husband but war broke out and she was incarcerated in a concentration camp for three years. She met my father years later. My father was the chief of police.

My mother was quite amazing. She was a member of the Red Cross and while she was in the camp she took it upon herself to look after the sick prisoners. She has always told me that if you have problems in your life, if you go out and do something for someone else and don't ask for anything in return, your problems will diminish. You take yourself out of the "me" syndrome and into the "what can I do for someone else less fortunate?" mindset. This is, of course, one of the most important lessons in life.