I think that is the most important lesson you learn in life, that you have to be ready to make a compromise. You do not compromise your principles, but you have to be ready to compromise. You have to understand that you cannot get your way 100 percent. Life is too complicated. You are not an island, and you work in a social setting, and you need to understand that you work always — at the family level, at the society level — to work out the compromise that is perceived to be fair. You don’t get 100 percent of what you want, but at least you will get the basic minimum that you require.

I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

That there is time. I doggedly prioritise and pursue tasks, and the day seems to open out and everything does get done. Chill.

Follow your dream and never give up, because it’s not over until the fat lady sings. Ride the adventure!

I started stammering badly the first time I was on live radio, on Woman’s Hour on Radio 4. When I think about it now it brings me out in a cold sweat.

Effervescence in the soul.

“You’ll never walk again.” This was when I was eight or nine and recovering from viral encephalitis.

Darnella Frazier, the teenager who filmed George Floyd’s murder. It took astonishing courage to stand on the pavement in front of those policemen, and we all owe her so much.

How long have you got? I have written a memoir and the subtitle is Seventeen Brushes with Death.

Last summer, swimming in a waterfall in Cumbria with my daughters.