Where do you live?
Nicosia in a village with my husband and three hairy babies. Our dogs Lara, Bobby and Alfie
Best childhood memory?
Halloween night in expat housing while living in Beirut as a child. Unable to leave the complex, we children would trick or treat for hours. My most vivid Halloween I dressed up as a fortune telling gypsy purely for the large earrings
Most frequented restaurant and absolute favourite dish? What food would you really turn your nose up to?
Easy! Syrian Friendship Club, Taboulleh salad with shish Taouk and hummus is my all time favourite since I was a child. I would never try or eat snails or oysters, the very idea of their potentially slimy quality makes me nauseous.
What did you have for breakfast?
Banana and Special K
Would you class yourself as a day or night person? What’s your idea of the perfect night/day out?
I am most definitely a night person although I am currently attempting to re-wire this and become friends with the morning. I am known very well among friends and family for being a hideous morning person. It’s risky to approach me before 9am.
Perfect day out is a beach picnic with my husband and mutts.
Best book ever read?
Impossible! I gobble books up, I have anything from two to four books going at any one time. How about I give you my best authors of all time? Hanif Kureishi, Ahdaf Soueif and Jeffrey Eugenides. Anything by any of these writers is epic and will keep you up reading long past bed time and stay with you for days after.
Favourite film of all time?
Tough one, there are so many greats. If I had to pick it would be The English Patient, I love the drama and angst, Ralph Fiennes is superb and the writing is beautiful.
Favourite holiday destination? What’s your dream trip?
Florence, Italy. Or Rome. Or anywhere in Italy for that matter. There are no poor destinations or bad food in Italy, Italy is incredibly hard to leave.
Dream trip is to visit my birthplace of Kenya, spend time on safari and then lie on the stunning beaches there.
What music are you listening to in the car at the moment?
I am forever a BBC Radio 4 junky, I adore talk radio and its brain gym while driving
What is always in your fridge?
Peanut butter!
Dream house: rural retreat or urban dwelling? Where would it be, what would it be like?
I am always a creature of extreme opposites so I would happily have a dream country house with land and animals (Italy of course) but could also disappear in equal bliss to a loft space in New York, either would do. Either option would have to include my husband and hairy babies though.
If you could pick anyone at all (alive or dead) to go out for the evening with, who would it be?
Dean Karnazes, world famous ultramarathon runner who didn’t start running until age 30 and runs a marathon (42km) before breakfast each day. His mental toughness, his resilience and endurance are truly inspiring.
If the world is ending in 24 hours what would you do?
Gather my nearest and dearest on a beach in the Seychelles or Maldives
What is your greatest fear?
Outliving my loved ones.
Tell me a joke…
A duck walks into a pharmacy and says, ‘Gimme some chap stick… and put it on my bill.’
