Now the look of the book dictates the sale. In my day you could still buy a good cookbook in paperback with no pictures at all. I doubt if that would sell today. But those books were much used: they lived in the kitchen and got splattered with custard and gravy.

My first taste memory is of our nanny in South Africa making white bread sandwiches with salad cream, which was potato mashed with a cheap mayonnaise thing with bits in it of - I suppose - pickled cucumber. I absolutely loved them.

I go to Michelin-starred restaurants as part of my job, but that's not how I want to eat all the time.

I couldn't live without my faithful companion, Megs the dog.

I prefer pub food to posh food.

You can serve good food on a budget provided you don't waste it.

I get more questions about my necklaces and specs than I do about food.

I used to always employ South Africans and Aussies and Kiwis - I can't admit this, well I can now, but I couldn't admit it at the time - but I didn't want wet English lads who didn't want to work in the catering trade anyway.

I went to drama school but soon realised I was terrible at acting, so I ditched drama school for art school.

I'd love to look incredibly glamorous, but I am a wholesome, comforting nanny type: I think I look like an advertisement for wholemeal flour or something.

I am not saying celebrity chefs don't encourage children to cook. However, their programmes are so entertaining, you end up stuffing your face with Pot Noodles instead of learning from them.

I'm a good cook, I am not a great cook. I'm an absolute fraud.

Aged six, I sailed from South Africa to England by steam ship with my family. It was a three-week journey. I remember crying on my birthday when I didn't get the enormous teddy bear that was for sale in the ship's shop but, aside from that, I had a wonderful time.

Very few parents give out healthy lunchboxes due to pressure from their children.

People often ask what my favourite food is, but the answer depends on what I last ate. I love sausages and mash. But if I'd already eaten them for lunch, then you asked me at tea-time, I'd probably answer 'crab salad.'

I'd been brought up in a society which didn't talk about sex, food, money, religion or politics. Those things were all deemed slightly rude.

I've always had an image of Mother's Pride flour, very respectable and middle-class.

For me the best food in the world is New British. It's quite classical cooking with really simple but good-quality ingredients. I also like top-end restaurants and pub grub done well.

I think the most important thing in the whole world is love and relationships, and if you don't have them it's quite bad.

My grandchildren love cooking, and it doesn't have to be sweet things.

I won't eat something which is high in calories and not particularly wonderful, because that's just not worth it, you feel guilty after.

If I'm going to do something, I'll do it properly or not at all.

I would have my last meal at my home in Oxfordshire.

I came through the Sixties so I was perfectly aware of drug-taking but I came from South Africa and we were brought up in quite an old-fashioned way. If I went to a rave or a party, I'd be behind the barbecue flipping the burgers. I wasn't out there partying.

I have strong hair, so if I've had a good haircut, I can wash my hair in the bath and not worry about it.

I do think it is the responsibility of parents to feed their children properly.

Nobody should eat too much cake.

Hua Hin is Thailand's royal beach resort and home to the king's summer palace. The local food is fantastic, the weather is beautiful, everything's cheap and the Thai people are so friendly and warm.

I love writing fiction and can do it anywhere - I once even missed a flight because I was so engrossed.

If I am tanned, I feel a million times better.

I was an intellectual groupie. Still am.

I believe in good, honest food. That's always been my ethos.

I'm not saying I'm proud of the fact I had a long affair with a married man, but it did help my business. By the time I married and had children I had the business under my belt.

I'm quite lazy. I don't want to learn a new subject like shipbuilding.

I've baked more cakes since I've been on 'Bake Off' than I have in my life.

I try to spend most weekends in the Cotswolds, having fun.

I vividly remember throwing a bowl of porridge at my husband Rayne once when he defended the children instead of me - the patch on the ceiling stayed for years.

When I'm wearing too-high heels and swaying my hips, I do that Sharon Stone kind of thing - she has the sexiest walk, a New York cool thing that throws you back.

I have my dad's shape. No booty.

If I ran into a 19-year-old version of myself, I'd just tell her to live, full out. I might also tell her to go ahead and have a few babies and not worry about the timing of it.

I think as far as the music industry is concerned, it's kind of been the wild, wild West in a way with the Internet, which is not necessarily a bad thing to me.

How many crossroads are you allowed to have in life? I seem to have a lot of crossroads. I think maybe I crossed back across the same road too often.

I'm proud of everything I do, but I think I'm the most happy about becoming a rapper. It was my entrance into everything. That helped me get into acting.

Business is fun. Controlling your own destiny is fun. Creating an idea and turning it into a movie; finding an artist and guiding their career and bringing them to some type of status - there's joy in that.

I came from a crew, and to me, all the guys I rapped with were better than me, so I was surprised when I was the breakout one. It was definitely a cool thing.

Most people don't have so much talent that they can become a success all their own. We all need people to help us and lift us up.

I've never been the straight rapper that is going to stand in a cipher and battle all day. I started off battle rapping, but to me, making songs became more important than freestyles... I've met many rappers who can freestyle but can't make a record.

I got a few marriage proposals in my 20s. I just wasn't ready. I just knew if I committed, I would've wound up doing something wrong, messing it up. I still felt like I had some living to do.

When my body feels good, I feel more energized and alive, and that's sexy. I'm taking care of this body God gave me.

I was not born a size 2. I'm not skinny, period. I'm not willing to sleep with the director or step on somebody else's neck to get the job.