There is so much that is positive, wonderful even, about state schools. At a state school your kids will learn to live alongside and appreciate other kids from many diverse and different cultures.

If I'm hunting down gifts, I like to buy locally.

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

Society prizes a girl for being thin more than anything else she might bring to the table.

Both Plockton and the Isle of Muck in north-west Scotland are incredibly beautiful. Sadly, Plockton has been discovered by tourists because it's where they shot Hamish Macbeth.

When popularity is your only goal, doing well in class is going to feature very low, if at all, on your priority list.

I don't think I've got the expertise with which to nit-pick, and I freely admit that my motivation to support charities has been emotional, rather than as a result of being particularly well informed as to how the money is used.