A ring for my wife.

A very expensive dehydrator (it cost £30). I’ve made raisins, banana chips and apple chips with it so far. It’s so addictive, I’ll probably start drying my kids soon.

Perfume for the wife, and the Jaguars. They were always secondhand. I have had every kind except the E-Type.

My piano, a boudoir grand. I’ve played since I was six.

Talking in cliches. We have the most economic, resonant and versatile language in the world, yet so many people use it in a dull and boring way.

When I first met Richard, in 1992, on a British Council writers’ tour of Adelaide. We were drinking Australian lager while parakeets squawked rudely in the neighbourhood gumtrees.

Like coming home.

Meryl Streep. For all her truthful and perfected offerings that have taken me to an “elsewhere”, in which my mind could feel both soothed and stimulated.

Working as the assistant to an agony aunt on a women’s magazine. When we didn’t get enough heartbreaking letters, we made them up.

The film of Restoration. A beautiful cast. An award-winning designer. A massive budget. A dog’s dinner.