Sue Lawley, OBE

Sue Lawley is one of Britain's best-known broadcasters and journalists. Her programme portfolio has always been varied, from current affairs to chat shows. Nationwide and Tonight were the first national television programmes she presented, then came general elections, the Nine o'Clock and Six o'Clock News, Question Time, Wogan and her own interview show Saturday Matters. For 18 years, until 2006, she presented Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and she has chaired the BBC's Reith Lectures for the past seven years.

Sue was born in the West Midlands, studied languages at Bristol University and began her career as a graduate trainee with the Western Mail & Echo in Cardiff and as a sub-editor and reporter with BBC Plymouth. A mother of two grown up children, (and a dedicated but struggling bridge and golf player), Sue lives with her husband, Hugh Williams, a television executive, in London and in Devon.