Now children as young as nine carry AK47s which can kill 30 people in seconds.

I also read modern novels - I have just had to read 60 as I am one of the judges for the Orange Fiction Prize.

I don't want to be involved in endless media gossip.

It's totally mistaken to suppose that an armed escort is going to give a journalist any protection - on the contrary, journalists who turn up surrounded by armed personnel are just turning themselves into targets and in even worse danger.

On the Northern Ireland question, for instance, the British and Irish governments prohibit media contact with members of the IRA, but we have always gone ahead, believing in the right to information.

I have never been attracted to any kind of violence.

It wasn't glamorous in my day. In the regions, reporters were seen as such low life that they didn't merit their name in the Radio Times. Now people are interested in being famous. I never gave it a thought.