I was once run over by a speedboat while in a sailing boat. It knocked me over and landed on my left arm. My left hand turned green with tiny purple spots but it turned out to be temporary, thank goodness.
The Hunters
To raise money to travel around and volunteer in Africa after university I did a sponsored swim-a-thon. On the day, my hairband broke and I swam three miles with my hair floating in front of me like some sort of blonde seaweed. A fire alarm also went off after fifteen minutes, but no one came to tell me to get out, so I figured in the water was the safest place to be.
I hate making the bed. Hate it! But I love clean bedsheets. There's nothing quite like a cool, clean bedsheet on a hot summer night.
I can play the piano and clarinet and studied for my diploma in the piano. Then I went away and by the time I came back I couldn't play any of my pieces. I still have lessons every other month but I've never taken the exam.
Whenever I go on holiday I search out the local cemetery and local stately garden. I'm obsessed with them. Back in London I never think about cemeteries or gardens, but as soon as I'm on holiday that's where I want to be...
...my other favourite activity on holiday is going to the stately home attached to the garden and redesigning it in my head as if I lived there. I invariably have a library, a games room and a conservatory. Maybe I just want to live in a Cluedo board.
My favourite ice cream flavour is mint. You can't beat a good mint. I will also accept chocolate, coffee and yoghurt ice cream.
The first holiday I went on with my partner was to Dubrovnik. Our first full day there we took a boat to a nearby island and went swimming. On our way back to shore he stepped on an urchin and got several spines stuck in his foot. I'd read that vinegar helped dissolve them, so bought a bottle of balsamic from our local shop and made him put his foot in a bowl of the stuff. Turns out that's not the vinegar they mean. I also tried to dig them out with a needle and really mangled it. Somehow we're still together.
I've failed my driving test three times, but I'm very good at remembering routes, so on a road trip I would really only be useful if the sat-nav broke .
I've always known I wanted to be a writer. Well, almost always. When I was four I told my parents I wanted to be a chocolate mouse. A year later I changed my mind and said I would be an author when I grew up, and that turned out to be the better career path. My second novel, The Hunters, is out with Borough Press May 31st.