My mother, father, stepmother and surrogate mother have all died of cancer; my best friend has got terminal cancer and at least five of my other friends have had cancer but survived it.

Despotism isn't nearly as bad as it's cracked up to be.

Sending your child off to school for the first time in their life is terrifying.

As an actress and comedienne, I'm a huge fan of he theatre and the Tricycle in Kilburn is my favourite in London. I dragged my kids to a performance of 'Twelfth Night' there, where they handed out pizza. Who knew that all it takes to get children interested in Shakespeare is a snack?

I'm the co-chair of the PTA at my kids' school, Ashmount Primary, in north Islington, London.

I spent my entire childhood living abroad because of my father's occupation, so we were on long-haul flights all the time.

Call me an over anxious, middle-class mum, but my eight-and-a-half-year old son looks very much, to me, like he's headed for a life of crime.