I mistrust total competence. I've always felt life is a series of small disasters we try to get through.

I can be me, and people seem quite happy with that.

People say the most stupid things on the spur of the moment that they then have to retract.

Despite having seen a fair amount of the world, I still love travelling - I just have an insatiable curiosity and like looking out of a window.

Geography prepares for the world of work - geographers, with their skills of analysis are highly employable!

I've been lucky to have made a number of travel programmes with the BBC, the object being to see places off the beaten track. As a result, I've often had a guide who's been able to show me things that you wouldn't see with a tour group.

I saw novelists as being admirable people and I thought... I thought... maybe, one day, I could be one of them.