Having cakes as a business certainly changes things for me - I don't now sit at home doing a cake for the fun of it anymore. But it's an extremely happy and pleasureable business to run because people are generally buying cakes for celebrations.

As a child, I wanted to marry a farmer, but no doubt the reality would have been very different to the idyll in my head.

An actor's job is about putting across the author's intention; I don't think of myself on the same level as a creator.

The rehearsal time is almost my favourite part of being an actress, particularly if you're working on a play that hasn't been done before.

Of all the things I do, acting is the thing that grabs most, but there's another level on which it strikes me as being a little silly. In the end you're dressing up and deciding to be somebody.

I look at myself objectively and in a way I see myself as a commodity. Your name becomes somehow outside yourself. Now, when I'm at home being Mrs. Scarfe, that's when I'm most myself.

I'm a creature of habit, so I like going to boutiques, rather than larger stores, where I know I'll find something that suits me every time.