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 up: "What Katy Did at School" and "What Katy Did Next". Two further sequels relating the adventures of Katy's younger siblings were also published—"Clover" and "In the High Valley". The books were frequently reprinted and all are available online. Coolidge modeled Katy on her own childhood self, and the other 'Little Carrs' on her brothers and sisters. The title is a play on the katydid, a family of insects – which explains the insects on the first edition book cover. 12-year-old Katy Carr lives with her widowed father and her two brothers and three sisters in Burnet, a small midwestern