Claire said: "I got into lots of trouble with school, because I was never there. I missed about a third of my schooling. The truant officer was always coming round, but Mum was a good talker and it often ended up with the truant officer having their palm read.

"When I was at school I did have some problems. Some parents didn't like me going to friends' houses because they thought my mother was a witch."

Instead of going to school Claire accompanied her mother who travelled widely giving palm and crystal ball readings. As a schoolgirl she would sit by Eva, watching and learning from her mother's technique.

Later Claire bunked off school when her grandmother was ill to man her fortune-telling booth on the Palace Pier.

After giving her first reading at a fete when she was 12 it was probably inevitable that Claire was drawn into clairvoyancy when she left school.

She spent a couple of years in the States, where she did a variety of jobs, but came back to follow in the family footsteps. She is now a clairvoyant, astrologer, palmist and tarot reader.

Claire said: "Fortune-telling and astrology was just something I grew up with. We lived in a big old vicarage in Ditchling Road and my mum did a lot of celebrity readings, I never knew who was going to be there when I got home.

"It was instilled into me from an early age, and it was something I wanted to do. It was a gift which I also cultured."

Claire's book was prompted by her fascination with astrology.

In it she explains her ideas on how astrology relates to health and how different foods and herbs can affect a person's well-being according to their star signs.

To those who dismiss horoscopes as meaningless mumbo-jumbo the whole concept of eating for your star sign will sound daft.

But Claire - a Scorpio - says she is not trying force her beliefs on anyone or stop people eating their favourite foods.

She said: "I have never gone and shoved my views down anyone's throat. I fully believe everyone

should be sceptical until they

have investigated. People can read

the book and make up their own minds."

As a Scorpio she takes her own advice, which involves drinking a lot of milk and eating cottage cheese, watercress and onion, to boost calcium, and avoiding alcohol.

Anyone born under Libra is urged to avoid too much alcohol and eat plenty of apples, spinach and lettuce, while Aries people are warned chocolate can cause headaches and Pisceans are recommended lots of green leafy vegetables.

Claire said: "We are all different star signs and it is silly to expect us to to exist on the same diet. The book is about understanding how astrology relates to your health, the right remedies for the right time of life, and how to deal with problems such as stress.

"My grandmother and my mother were both Romanies and this is information which has been handed down from generation to generation."

Claire, who is married to a hairdresser called Rob, is plain Mrs Peirce in her private life. She moved to Torquay, where Rob has a salon, when they were married but still thinks of Brighton as her home town.

She returns regularly to Sussex several times a month when she is working in London, staying with her mother or her brothers.

On a recen

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.