I had two imaginary friends when I was very young. One, who was called Fairy, was very naughty, and the other, who was very good, was called Charlotte. There's Freudian! I didn't allow either of them to impinge on family life, although I think I sometimes talked about them, but it didn't seem to worry my parents They faded into the ether but I later pretended that I had a little sister – not quite the same as an imaginary friend – but she fulfilled some of my emotional needs with an older sister, older cousins, there being no nursery schools for littles and no contact with contemporaries when I was a pre-schooler. I grew out of it when I went to school aged four and have imaginary friends only my dreams these days.