Clarice Cliff (née Machin) took in washing to supplement the family income, and they had seven children. Cliff was sent to a different school from her siblings, and this perhaps prompted her more independent approach to her career, and her non-standard life style by Stoke-on-Trent standards. After school Cliff would visit an aunt who was a hand painters at a local pottery company, and she also made models from papier-mâché at school. At the age of 13, Cliff started working in the pottery industry. Her first work was as a gilder, adding gold lines on ware of traditional design. Once she had
What Katy Did Cousin Helen: Papa's niece; she cannot walk because of an accident years ago. Despite her suffering she is amusing, cheerful, and kind; just what Katy wants to be. After Katy's accident, Cousin Helen helps her adjust to her illness. Susan Coolidge shared her publisher, Roberts Brothers, with Louisa May Alcott, and "What Katy Did" helped satisfy the demand for naturalistic novels about girlhood that followed the 1868 success of "Little Women". Like Alcott, Coolidge heightened the realism of her novel by drawing on her own childhood memories. "What Katy Did" also illustrates social shifts. First the novel depicts the treatment