Daphne Guinness: ‘Making music is the most fun I’ve had'

The designer and singer, 52, reflects on living next door to Salvador Dali as a child, her brush with death and why she never looks in the mirror

I'm told that I had a difficult childhood. I had a lot of freedom, but there was a lot of drama. It was a childhood of extremes.

I was bullied by my history teacher. He'd say, Well, your grandmother is a fascist [Diana Mitford, wife of Oswald Mosley], so you're getting a D in this essay," and I was like, What does that have to do with it?" I didn't retrench into just thinking, Oh gosh, they're just being mean to me." I went to Auschwitz. I went to the Holocaust camps. I did a lot of deep research, which was pretty heavy in my teens. But it was something I needed to resolve to understand why I was being bullied. It took me a long time to realise that I didn't have to be defined by the place that I came from.