Writing before dawn began as a necessity—I had small children when I first began to write and I needed to use the time before they said, “Mama”—and that was always around five in the morning. Many years later, after I stopped working at Random House, I just stayed at home for a couple of years. I discovered things about myself I had never thought about before.

I begin each morning, I do every single morning exactly the same way, I begin each morning by doing my highest priority work first. I have a very clear priority list and I start from the highest priority work first. Before I even get to work, my day is already a success. I've already completed my most important work and can dedicate my day to helping others.

Our life here is simple, very simple. Get up in the morning, go for a run, come back. If it is a day for cleaning, we do the cleaning, or we just relax. Then go for lunch, massage, the 4 o'clock run, evening tea, relax, go to sleep. As simple as that.

Every morning, Monday to Friday, I get up at 7am and make my wife breakfast in bed.

But I should have more confidence, it's ridiculous.

I wish school career advisers were more aware of horticulture. They imagine it's just going out into public parks and pulling weeds up, not a career. But there is garden design, horticultural research, conservation – a whole gamut of angles which are overlooked.

I hope that it exists. I'm not sure I can fit everything in before then.

My inability to play the piano.

Eric Idle’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. That’s me, really.

I'm a cryer. The family has a competition to see who can get me going at Christmas. The last time I blubbed was on my birthday, when my daughter gave me a framed photo of my 15-month-old grandson Hugo, but I have been known to shed a tear at The Railway Children or Pretty Woman.