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 for the BBC - then came general elections, the Nine and Six o'Clock News, Question Time, Wogan and her own interview shows on television.

For the past 17 years she has presented Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and has chaired the BBC's Reith Lectures for the past four. She is a director of the English National Opera.

Sue was born in the West Midlands, studied languages at Bristol University and began her career as a journalist at The Western Mail & Echo in Cardiff and as a sub-editor and reporter with BBC Plymouth.

A mother of two grown children, Sue lives with her husband, a media executive, in London and in Devon.