When I joined the Sunday Times the people I was competing with were all 10 or 15 years younger, they all had double firsts from Oxford or Cambridge, they were all bright as new pins.
Early on in the writing, there is often a sentence that pins down a character for me.
In the days when I used to tweet, I would encounter comments wishing death upon me. There were people who claimed they were sticking pins in my effigy because they couldn't stand me. There's some seriously disturbed people out there.
I loved Disney. 'Fantasia' was my first, favorite Disney movie. And it just kept going. I loved 'Bambi.' I loved 'Cinderella,' 'Lady and the Tramp' and 'Snow White' and even 'Mary Poppins' which wasn't even fully animated - it was just a little bit animated. They were such a part of my growing up years; I was just very connected to them.
I never wanted Mary Poppins to be my nanny. I wanted to be her when I grew up.
The real Mary Poppins got lost when Hollywood turned her into a cream puff.
The most irritating movie character for me was that cradle-to-grave commie, Mary Poppins.
My very first products were hand-made, one-of-a-kind pins. When I finally realized I could repeat a phrase to make multiples, 'intellectuals gone bad,' a fairly succinct description of my own life, seemed appropriate.
The false pride of perennial celebration, of wearing flag lapel pins while betraying the values that the flag stands for, is like the self-esteem curriculum for toddlers, where everything is praised and no achievement ultimately has meaning.
My all time favourite films - one is 'Mary Poppins,' and the other one is 'Pakeezah.' 'Pakeezah' was an Indian film. The beauty of 'Pakeezah' was that it had a soundtrack which was pure poetry.
