What did you want to be when you were growing up?

I was going to be a journalist. But after the war I studied anthropology, just in order to become educated. I thought it was worth knowing the science of man. I still intended to become a journalist, but there were no jobs, because the reporters who had gone to war were coming back and were entitled to their jobs, and the women who had replaced them were damned if they’d leave, and they shouldn’t have left.

Always… as soon as I knew what writers were, I wanted to be one. I’ve got the perfect temperament for a writer; perfectly happy alone in a room, making things up.

As a kid I used to fantasize about being Clayton Moore, the masked hero in The Lone Ranger. I’m much too old to play him now – I’d have to be the baddie who he kills – although I do have a horse as King Arthur, well someone clopping along behind me with a pair of coconuts.

Because I loved it when I was young.

When I was little I wanted to be a conductor. I knew there was a man in a smart coat who waved his arms around at the opera and I thought: "There's the job for me."

At 12, I wanted to be an architect, at 18, a writer, and now, at forty, an architect again. I’m powerfully drawn to everything related to building, but I also love ideas. These are my two passions.

By the time I was 19, I was saying, “I’m going to be a writer. This is my path.”

But when people say, Did you always want to be a writer?, I have to say no! I always was a writer. I didn’t want to be a writer and lead the writer’s life and be glamorous and go to New York. I just wanted to do my job writing, and to do it really well.

To be blonde. It was just my ambition in life. Just to be blonde.

The only concert I’ve ever really been to was (to see) a prepubescent Justin Bieber many years ago. I remember looking into the crowd. It felt like every girl wanted to be on stage because they wanted to just touch Justin Bieber…. All the girls wanted to be with him, I feel, but I just wanted to be him in that moment.

Huckleberry Finn.

I always wanted to be a singer, but I also wanted to be a doctor. I almost got there: I did four years and got my neuroscience BSc.

A jazz drummer.

I dreamt of being an astronomer, I had a series of How and Why Books on the planets and the stars.

A teacher. Teachers can change lives.

Golfer, priest, police officer, teacher and, after going to the movies, actor.

To be able to play the piano like Artur Schnabel.

A writer. Always.

A stuntman. Evel Knievel was an icon.

A spy, a witch and a nun.