I'll come clean. I'm 37 years old and I have loved the Wombles all my life.

This is a picture of me (on the left) and my sister at a strange Womble Burrow exhibition at Morecambe in Lancashire, UK, December 1974. We're holding home-made Madame Cholet soft toys, and in danger of being dwarfed by the huge womble models!

Well, of course, growing up in the 1970s, the Wombles were the children's TV of choice, and their environmental message of recycling and reusing rubbish made a huge impression on me. They were eco-warriors ahead of their time! The pop songs were everywhere for a few years, and I remember going to see the stage show at Preston Charter Theatre sometime in the mid 70s.

Then in my mid-teens, I rediscovered the records, and was struck by just how funny and charming the songs were. I found they were subtly witty, with great humour, and were fantastically knowing pastiches of every musical genre under the sun. It has never been fashionable to like the Wombles music, but I've stuck with them since then nonetheless, and have on occasion even persuaded friends to sing along.

Around this time, the mid-1980s, I began searching for Wombles memorabilia from the 1970s, scouring car boot fairs and charity shops for annuals, toys and models. There was little stuff around at this time, but rumours were around of a re-launch...

Then in 1990 there were a couple of new Wombles specials made for TV, and a whole load of new Wombles toys hit the shops. Being a hard-up student, I could not afford to buy them, but I hoped that they would end up in second-hand shops before too long. Throughout these wilderness years, friends would surprise me with Wombles treasures from jumble sales and second hand shops, and the collection grew very slowly.

Then in 1998 there was an amazing revival of all things Wombly: the new Cinar children's TV series spurred a massive range of new merchandise, clothes, toys, books, and the rest. And this time I could afford to indulge my habit, so I proudly bought whatever I could find for my collection.

It was in 1999 that I discovered ebay, the biggest car boot fair in the world! I was able to track down countless Wombles items from around the world, both original memorabilia and new items that weren't for sale in the UK. My Wombles Collection grew explosively after this time, and is still expanding today. Here we are in full-size Womble outfits on our way to SingalongaElvis.

By now, my collection has become legendary, and friends make jokes about opening the house as a Wombles museum. Well, this is the next best thing. It is my public duty to Wombles fans everywhere (!) to open up my collection on the internet and invite all Wombles fans to explore, and remember they're a Womble too!

Keep On Wombling!

Gill