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is the little bugger?” Then I remembered the boat. We were on a boat trip the day before, so I made my way towards there. This woman came up to me and said, “Are you looking for a little girl in a yellow and pink dress?” She pointed me towards the landing point for the boat and there was Adele, just playing by the seaside. I picked her up and as you do out of fear and relief, I smacked her arse for her. And she cried and cried. She didn’t speak to me for days.’

      While Penny was filling her home with the cool sounds of the time – 10,000 Maniacs and Jeff Buckley, as well as The Cure – the young Adele was falling for the acts that were causing a ripple in the playground. In the summer of 1996 that meant only one group for young girls: the Spice Girls.

      Adele was soon dancing around the bedroom singing ‘Wannabe’, the band’s first record-breaking number one in July. Adele was among the millions around the world who could sing the song word perfectly without having any idea what ‘zig-a-zig-ah’ meant. She proved the point nearly twenty years later when she sang a spontaneous version with James Corden for his chat show’s ‘Carpool Karaoke’ feature.

      For a while, the Spice Girls were the biggest band in the world, effortlessly breaking America with their energy, pin-sharp image and consumer-friendly brand of Girl Power. In Geri Halliwell, they found someone with a drive and flair for publicity that was completely new for female pop stars. Adele was transfixed by her fire and energy: ‘I just remember seeing Geri and being like, “Fuck it, I’m going to do that. I want to be Ginger Spice.”’

      Ginger was Adele’s favourite, although, when she left the group, Adele switched her allegiance to Mel B (Scary Spice), who was equally mouthy and in your face. Despite being so young, Adele was inspired by the whole ‘Girl Power’ movement. The Golden Rules of Girl Power as defined by the Spice Girls were:

      Be positive.

      Be strong!

      Don’t let anyone put you down.

      Be in control of your own life and your destiny.

      Support your girlfriends, and let them support you too.

      Say what’s on your mind.

      Approach life with attitude.

      Don’t let anyone tell you that you can never do something because you’re a girl.

      Have fun.

      They could easily be the principles of Adele’s own life. To this day, the Spice Girls remain Adele’s favourite group. They did shape their own destiny, wrote their songs – or at least had important co-writing credits – and earned a huge amount of money very quickly. ‘Wannabe’ remains the biggest-selling single ever by a girl group, shifting more than seven million copies. It was number one in twenty-two countries, including the US, where it was top of the charts for four weeks.

      The Spice Girls were a manufactured group, however, in much the same way as Girls Aloud and, more recently, Little Mix and One Direction, except for the fact that their audition process wasn’t televised for a TV talent show. There was another aspect that would catch the attention of Adele: three of them went to stage schools or ‘fame academies’, as they were popularly known. Before she became Posh Spice, Victoria Adams had attended Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom. Melanie Chisholm (Mel C/Sporty Spice) was sixteen when she was accepted at the Doreen Bird School of Performing Arts in Sidcup. Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) was given a scholarship to the Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone. They would probably have all ended up at the BRIT School if it had existed in 1990.

      Her father was unimpressed when Adele visited South Wales and told him of her enthusiasm for the Spice Girls: ‘They were her heroes but I used to take the mickey out of her about it. I used to say they were terrible, bloody awful.’ Fortunately, his lack of enthusiasm for Girl Power didn’t discourage his daughter.

      By this time, the dynamic of Adele’s visits to Penarth had changed. Her grandparents were still there to fuss over her, but her father had a son, her half-brother Cameron. This time Marc was included on the birth certificate, although subsequently Cameron took the surname of his mother, Siobhan O’Sullivan. Marc set up home with them in Llantwit Major, a small resort seventeen miles west of Penarth.

      Adele was thrilled to meet her little brother and, despite an age gap of seven years, has always been fond of Cameron in the manner of a big sister who’s the boss. ‘He looks like my twin,’ she happily observed. ‘We’re identical, same hair and everything. It’s bizarre growing up in a completely different city but then, when you see each other, it’s as if you’ve spent every day of your lives together.’

      Adele got on fine with her father’s new family and occasionally would stay with them, but more usually she remained in Penarth with Nana and Grampy. Her legion of cousins grew even larger when Uncle Richard, who was still in London, started a family and had a son called Jasper, whom she also saw from time to time.

      Marc, meanwhile, flitted from job to job. He worked another season in Barry before setting up a flower stall in Penarth. He subsequently went back to plumbing – this time on his own in Llantwit Major, not the family business.

      Penny and Adele were on the move too: they relocated to Brighton. Adele still refers to herself as a Tottenham girl, but she hasn’t lived there since she was nine years old. Leaving Tottenham was one of two important events in Adele’s young life that would spell the end of her childhood. She commented, ‘I had a great childhood. I was very loved.’

      Bizarrely, they cleared out of the flat in Shelbourne Road so abruptly that they left all sorts of possessions stashed away in the loft, including Adele’s electric guitar, suitable for ages six and up, which had a ‘special singalong head microphone for a really professional performance’, a keyboard, her tricycle and her birth card from the National Childbirth Trust.

      It was a dramatic move for them both, leaving behind the security of close family in Tottenham. It meant an end to whiling away afternoons strolling on the banks of the River Lea to visit cousins. The river, which rises in the Chiltern Hills near Luton and flows through Tottenham on its way to the Thames, figured large in Adele’s childhood memories and is the title of one of the songs on the album 25. ‘It’s a filthy river,’ she once said with some affection.

      Penny thought they would be happier in the trendy coastal town, which enjoyed a reputation as a centre for artistic pursuits. She had met an older man who owned a furniture shop and she went to work there, not only serving customers, but also taking a keen interest in furniture design.

      Mother and daughter settled into a large flat in a Georgian house in East Drive, right next to the agreeable Queen’s Park, which boasts a large pond, ideal for feeding ducks, and a ten-minute walk from the seafront. Brighton should have been ideal for Adele, especially as she was so fond of Penarth. She hated it, however, complaining, ‘The people seemed really pretentious and posh, and there were no black people there.’

      She was delighted when her mother embarked on a much more serious relationship and moved back to London. They settled in Brixton, near the border with Streatham in Cotherstone Road, an unpretentious urban street. They moved in with Penny’s new boyfriend, Simon, who worked as a computer programmer and became the stepfather in Adele’s life. He had been brought up in the Home Counties before starting his career in London.

      Penny took him and Adele to meet the Welsh side of her daughter’s family and he impressed everyone with his easy-going, friendly nature. Marc Evans thought he was ‘a lovely, lovely chap’. He observed, ‘He was a really mellow guy. Nothing would faze him. He would just let it go over his head – he was that type of fellow.’

      Adele was much happier back in the city until a second significant event occurred that was the most traumatic of her young life to date.

      John Evans, her beloved Grampy, had been diagnosed with bowel cancer and the prognosis was poor. He was admitted to the Velindre Cancer Centre in Whitchurch, Cardiff, just before her eleventh birthday in May 1999.

      Penny drove Adele up to see him several times during the last weeks as he slipped away. It was very hard for the young girl to cope. She recalled, ‘I

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