What is your favourite place in Sussex?

My garden in Moulsecoomb. It’s a peaceful place with the Downs in view.

What do you love most about living in Sussex?

The welcome. I moved to Sussex 23 years ago and wherever I have lived, everyone has always been eager to be great neighbours and build strong communities.

What advice do you have for your 12-year-old self?

Never lose track of the things that genuinely make you happy in life.

What is your most valued possession?

My dad’s wedding ring.

What is your biggest regret?

My dad died when I was eight. I never really got to know him as a man and I never got to know his judgement of me grown up.

What is your biggest fear?

Failure. But as I get older I get more used to learning to cope with life’s little upsets.

What is your proudest achievement?

I am incredibly proud of my son, who is 15 this month. I am starting to see glimpses of the man he will become.

Which five people (living or dead) would you invite to your fantasy dinner party?

My Dad.

Agatha Christie, I still need to know what happened during her disappearance.

Tony Benn, we wouldn’t always agree on things but we would have a good debate.

Brian Saltzer, my late next door neighbour and friend. A lifelong Tory who would be so upset if I had a dinner party without him.

P L Travers, she wrote the Mary Poppins series. The film covers some great socialist themes: the risks of capitalism, women’s suffrage, fox hunting.