Fern Britton interview

I'm no slave to fashion, but I like to have fun. I love bright colours, so I'm thrilled fluoros are back in style. Colour makes me smile. You can see it in my home too. It's like walking through a bazaar in Marrakech!

People can judge me the way they wish because they play by the rules, but I don't want to! It doesn't matter who you are and what age you are, you can wear what you bloody well want!

The girls and I would rather be outside than at the shops.Winnie and I were out in the garden till 8pm last night, digging and planting seeds. She's planting an apothecary's garden because she wants to be a herbalist. Grace is more my travelling buddy. We recently went to Tobermory on the Isle of Mull.

Phil and I often talk about escaping, and dream of where we'd go. Venice, the South of France and the Cotswolds are our favourite places. We spend a lot of time at our home in Cornwall too.

I love that feeling of falling in love. In the beginning, Phil and I were in that white-hot magnesium flare of passion. That obviously tempers, but our relationship has become much deeper. I can rely on him, he's my best friend and he's the person I want to spend my time with.

I really enjoy my own company. I presented This Morning for ten years and never got to be on my own. Now if I get home and the house is empty, I revel in it. I never get lonely or bored.

I don't find writing easy. There are some days when it flows really well and ideas come. But it's hard work. I have to turn off everything and sit in silence in a room. It's a great feeling once you have typed "The End", though!

I think some of what I write is autobiographical, although I don't realise I'm doing it at the time. The two feuding sisters in my latest novel The Holiday Home probably reflect two sides of my own personality. They definitely both have traits that I have. No one is all good and all bad. Most of the time, we're somewhere in the middle.

I did a couple of years of therapy and it helped me a great deal, but you get to the stage when you realise life is so precious, you don't have time to go over and over old anxieties and ancient hurts. It's best to say goodbye and move on.

I never think I've accomplished anything. I don't have much confidence in who I am, what I am, the work I do. I'm just grateful for it all. I don't look back, I'm always motoring on, thinking, "What am I going to do next?"

The Holiday Home

by Fern Britton (HarperCollins) is out now.

This is an edited version of Fern's interview. To read the full article, pick up the August issue of woman&home, out now.