Pieces of me: Harriet Harman

Harriet Harman, politician Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"My mother, now 90, is clever and ­enterprising. She read law at Oxford in the 1930s, when some of the professors refused to teach women. She trained as a barrister, gave it up when she had us, then retrained as a solicitor, practising ­family law until she ­retired" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"It’s important to show interest in my ­constituents’ countries of origin. This mask is from Sierra Leone, a beautiful country; I’ve also been to Nigeria and Tanzania and next is Ghana. My constituency - ­Camberwell and Peckham- has a bad reputation, but, like many areas with lots of immigrants, ­people are ­determined to get on, and for their ­children to do well. My kids still live there too" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"I was rubbish at guitar but can’t bear to part with it. I started learning at school and played classical rather than pop" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"This is my 'mad' hat, because that’s how I look when I’m wearing it. I bought it in Italy, so it’s a reminder of our holidays" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"I wear my lucky jacket on overwhelming occasions, such as when I went to Manchester to get the results for the deputy leadership election, or did prime minister’s questions the first time" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"Flash was a fantastic cat, a burmilla. The whole street knew him. He was 18 when he died, and I was all for having him disposed of, but my husband [Jack Dromey] wouldn’t hear of it, so we had Flash cremated. Now he sits, in this cherry casket, on the shelf in my study" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"A common theme for cartoons of me is that of the ­terrible fate befalling helpless men at my hands. But this is really funny. I’ve bitten some man’s head off and his balls are on a plate. The cause I’ve always espoused is equality. People may be fearful of it, but change is threatening' Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"Every minister has a red box, full of papers, but you’re not allowed to take it on a train, as it might be snatched. It has to be kept at home, and locked up at night so if you’re burgled, they can’t get into the box — which is lead-lined" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"My dad, a doctor, was a great gardener and this was his special pot, which I took over after he died. The plant’s an agapanthus, I think" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"Barbara Castle was sharp, tough and good to us younger ones. She wrote in this edition: 'To Harriet Harman, on whom I pin high hopes for a fighting Labour government'" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"It’s ironic that I got a vast cooker after the kids left home. I wasn’t very good at ­cooking until I got the sack from the cabinet. Then I read Delia" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"This was when I met Jack, in 1975. He was chairing a seminar at Marxism Today. He was a firebrand, with a great beard . . . great everything!" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian

"I wasn’t happy at university. Leonard Cohen is every gloomy student’s choice, and a lot of Judy Collins’s records were miserable" Photograph: Felix Clay/Observer

"My children loved this rocking sheep. Now my sister’s grandchildren play on it. I’m waiting for my own grandchildren. There are none yet!" Photograph: Felix Clay/Guardian