I was timid and frightened as a child. Yours truly did not shin up mountains or do any other kind of adventurous stuff.

I've never been one to sit around and eat my heart out. Life's too short.

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 have no time for the endless nostalgia: 'Oh gosh I used to . . . ' Life is too short; I don't have any time for sitting and saying I miss things. What's the point? Go and do something else.'

I never desired to go into war zones. I never had any thought about it. It sort of just happened as part of the job.

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.

People always seem to assume that we have a full, back-up support team - make-up, costume and a driver - but usually, in a war zone, there's only me and the cameraman.