Ialways wanted to be an agony aunt. There may have been a brief period when I was about nine during which I flirted with the idea of being an air hostess instead but, by the time I was 13, my ambition was strong and unwavering. I wanted to write a column in a magazine giving out advice to readers.

My favourite reading matter at that age was Jackie, a teen magazine all about Donny Osmond and midi-skirts. The best part was the problem page on which Cathy & Claire meted out straight-talking advice to tortured adolescents. When readers wrote in moaning about their two-timing boyfriends, Cathy & Claire would briskly tell them to stop being doormats.