It still feels quite peculiar to have written some kind of memoir,” says Emma Bridgewater, the woman whose name has become synonymous with distinctive pottery designs and a fast-expanding company with the trademark patterns, text and illustrations used on everything from glass to fabric.

Her recently published book, Toast, Marmalade And Other Stories is, she says, an expansion of the frequently asked questions, though she has discovered that publishing a book has meant telling the story another few hundred times.

Emma will be talking about her experience of setting up and running the business and signing copies of her book at Petworth Festival on November 14.

Since Emma was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, made worse by stress, her husband Matthew Rice has been running Emma Bridgewater the company, which has given her the chance to take a couple of steps back and reflect.

“Matthew has been running the business for about six years, and it has given me one or two steps back from the nitty gritty,” says Emma. “It was very nice to look back and see what the landmarks to date seem to be.

“It was about discovering how much the brand is rooted in my happy and creative childhood, where homemade fun was the hallmark.

Emma Bridgewater the ceramics company has become so successful; it could be easy to forget it started from small beginnings.

“It’s good to have the opportunity to look back and realise at times it was exhausting and stressful.

“It is my mission to demystify the process as much as possible. There can be a tendency for people to draw the ladder up, more from just forgetting what it was like.”

That said, Emma is adamant that she has not written a self-help book, though she hopes it will resonate with those who have started their own business.

The entrepreneurial spirit runs in Emma’s family – her father ran a publishing company in Oxford – and a couple of years after graduating from university, she decided that she wanted to start her own business.

The idea for pottery came in 1985 when Emma was trying to find a present for her mother, Emma says.

“I went into a china shop, as I had this idea of a tea set and of us sitting down and having a catch-up, and immediately I realised there was a great hole in the market.

“Everything that was available was very formal and did not speak of what her kitchen was like,” says Emma.

This led to her going to Stoke-on-Trent to talk to a model maker, taking with her some initial drawings.

“Looking back, it was strangely immediate, the whole process,” says Emma, now 53.

Her husband Matthew, a designer whom she met at a trade fair, became involved soon after they married.

Emma cites her mother as a major inspiration for her products.

“She was very good at encouraging one to be relaxed about entertaining and cooking. My mum had a way of making everything fun,” says Emma.

This has fed through to the way that she and Matthew live their lives, which in turn continues to provide inspiration for the Emma Bridgewater brand.

Her book charts the highs and lows of starting a business, but it also gives an insight into family life.

“It contains anecdotes, and they do, by the end tell you a lot about why the company is like it is.”

The Emma Bridgewater designs come from both of them, though there is a clear division of labour with Emma largely responsible for the sponge ware pattern and shape designs, while the more illustrative designs are Matthew’s.

“We interfere in each other’s work all the time though,” says Emma.

“I think what Matthew and I both feel is a great excitement with design and the connection it gives us to our customer base.

“I quite like the thought that Emma Bridgewater the brand is younger than Emma Bridgewater the woman.”

“Women, and our customer base is mostly women, project their ideas about family life into the template I provide.

She said initially friends were worried that she was sharing too much of her life with strangers, but Emma says, people are only interested in the aspects of her life that are mirrored in their own.

“I always had an instinct that it was everything and nothing to do with me,” says Emma.

All the pottery is British-produced, and the company owns a large Victorian factory in Stoke employing 240 local people working with traditional methods, and producing one million pieces each week.

Supporting British manufacturing is something that Emma is extremely passionate about. And passion is the key to success in business, says Emma.

“If you feel passionately about what you do, that is your likeliest reason to prevail.”

Emma is not afraid of the competition – Emma Bridgewater is no longer the only company bringing quirky pottery and homeware to the market.

“I feel fully armed by the knowledge that it is an industry that has always cannibalised itself. I don’t fear the competition.

“It feels to me there is lots of very reasonable ground to expect to conquer.”