Presenters

I got my first taste of broadcasting as a volunteer at a local hospital radio station in London, where I got my introduction to country music.

Who would have thought, way back then, that as I filed the records in their sleeves, fetched cups of coffee and compiled the what's on diary, that I would one day be reading the news to the East Midlands?

Mind you I've come a long way since I declared at five years of age that I wanted to be a typewriter. My parents tell me that I was very clear in my own mind that I didn't want to be a typist nor did I want to be a writer, I wanted to be a typewriter!

Neither of them had the heart to explain to me that unless I underwent extensive innovative surgery, I was never ever going to replicate the heartening clunk of the keys and the ding of a bell on a manual typewriter.

What I love about my job is that it's people based, it never ceases to amaze me that I can, on a first meeting, ask all kinds of questions and people will tell me things - the perfect job for someone as nosey as me!

Top 10 list

1. Best Song Ever: My Guy by Mary Wells, it was the first song I remember hearing on the radio, I wish I could have been a Supreme!

2. Best TV Show Ever: Thunderbirds - forget Santa Claus, I was devastated to learn that the "real" Scott Tracy was 11 inches tall and made of plastic!

3. Best personal TV moment: My newsreading debut.

4. Best place in England: It's a toss up between Lavenham or Southwold in Suffolk.

5. Favourite / worst food: I love Thai and Caribbean, but I can't stand cockles, whelks or oysters.

6. Favourite / worst drink: A Cosmopolitan - it's a cocktail, sweetie; coffee (smells great but tastes soooooo bitter).

7. Favourite / worst animal: Penguins (they can't fly, but they're always dressed for dinner!) / snakes (stems from an eventful visit to London Zoo when I was seven).

8. Favourite name for boy / girl: Nathan and Isabelle.

9. Favourite sport / least favourite sport: anything indoors / anything outdoors

10. Favourite politician / historical figure: Soujourner Truth.