Early Life
Parkin was born in 1932, the second of two daughters, in Pontycymer in the Garw Valley, Glamorgan, Wales. When Parkin was aged 7 the Second World War broke out and the family moved to London to live with her grandparents. Parkin passed her eleven plus exam and went to Willesden County Grammar School (now Capital City Academy). During the war, without her parents knowledge, at the age of 12 she worked on a paper round in Dollis Hill, London in the evenings. She told her mother that was studying art after-hours at school. Her grandfather saw her delivering papers, however, and reported this to her mother who prevented her from continuing with the job and punished her by making her do housework. After this she earned a little money from a Mr. Hill, their lodger, who took pity on her and paid her to clean his room. She idolised Mr. Hill, who she thought was a gentleman, and many years later saw similar characteristics in the actor James Robertson Justice. Later the family bought a tobacconist and newsagent shop, which employed four paper boys. When one of the paper boys was caught stealing money her mother had to fill his shift quickly and made Parkin, then aged 14, do his paper round instead. On her first day doing the job a car knocked her off her bicycle and she hit her head on the kerb. She was knocked unconscious, hospitalised, and spent about a year off school, convalescing. Parkin spent much of this period alone in her room above the shop, drawing and painting. This developed into an interest in the arts.
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