Full Transcript for Being Old In Conversation with Prue Leith

go through endless panels and you know, quota systems, and you have to have recruitment consultants and yeah and you have to have an outside consultant and nobody must have a vested interest, but in those days the chairman made up his board. 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:21.360 And the chairman, um I I I mean, I have to admit that it was pure nepotism because he played tennis with my husband every weekend. 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:23.600 And they were best friends. 00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:26.879 And so and he knew that he knew my businesses. 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:31.120 So he knew I had I w you know that I I had good businesses. 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:31.600 So he was. 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:32.879 And food businesses. 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:34.720 Yeah, and food businesses. 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:45.120 And he was very anxious to improve the food on British Rail and the and the w at the time we had lots of hotels in those days, like the Midland. 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:50.000 Lots of hotels belong belonged to British Rail. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:58.000 And so he wanted somebody who had been in the service industry because everybody on his board, they were all Scottish engineers. 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:06.399 And the first three the first three um board meetings I went to, nobody said a word. 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:11.439 They never mentioned the passenger or customer once. 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:13.279 They just talked about it. 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:18.000 It was like men playing with big trails train track. 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:22.800 You know, they were we were talking about diagramming, you know. 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:26.000 Basically, they were playing with trains. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:26.399 Yeah. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:31.120 And and so finally I got my, you know. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:39.759 That must have been so intimidating though, Prue, because as you say, you know, you were the first woman to sit there at a time when women didn't routinely sit on boards, you were young. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:45.199 You may you were already a successful businesswoman, but that might not have been recognized by those other people. 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:46.480 Yeah, no, that's true. 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:54.720 But I I think one of the reasons that I have always been quite successful is because I think I lack imagination. 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:59.120 You know, I don't I don't it never occurs to me that I'll fail. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:02.319 It never occurs to me that I I'm I shouldn't do something. 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:09.839 I think it must be that I had parents who were very encouraging and said you can go wherever you like and you don't, you know. 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:13.199 They I suppose they made us believe in ourselves. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:26.000 And so I I've never thought, and it's partly to do with being South African, because I don't understand about the British class system, so I I didn't have an undue respect for posh people. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:27.839 I just thought they were people. 00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:36.800 So it never occurred to me that I shouldn't have an opinion or that I shouldn't be in that company or that I'm not good enough for anything. 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:40.079 I always rather egotistically thought, of course I'm good enough for it. 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:41.360 And of course you were. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:46.720 And you know, if you have a crack at something, uh uh uh it's not that difficult. 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:47.519 Anyway. 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:49.279 Well, you say it's not that difficult. 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:55.199 I mean, at one point, as you say, yeah um the the South South Africa connection is so important for you, isn't it? 00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:59.040 It's not just that, you know, you kind of mentioned in passing that you're South African. 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:02.160 I know a lot of the love of colour and things comes from that. 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:05.839 And and in your book, that comes through really strongly right through to the end. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:08.560 Your real deep passion and love for South Africa. 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:10.720 I do love it, yes, I do love it. 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:15.920 Um I mean, there's still a lot wrong with South Africa. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:25.120 Um, I mean it was good that they finally got rid of a apartheid, but you know, it's now got the classic African corruption problems. 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:29.040 So there's a lot wrong with it, but it is the most beautiful country. 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:31.040 Absolutely the most beautiful country. 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:40.720 And and in terms of your jewellery, going back to where we started on your jewellery, again, you take quite a lot of South African and African influences, don't you, into your jewelry. 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:44.720 Well, all of Africa does amazing beading. 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:48.559 I mean, they're really fantastic and they always have great colours. 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:52.399 So, yeah, a lot of my jewellery is uh is African. 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:54.720 Um, yeah. 00:08:55.200 --> 00:09:14.000 So going back, if we go back a bit further then, um, because as I say, I I hadn't realized you'd written so many novels, which we'll come to, um, as well as cookbooks and things, but going back, you you kind of tried a few things, and then you found yourself in Paris, didn't you, when you were um, I don't know, was 18, 19, something like that. 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:25.759 And then you you tried a few different things and you decided you were going to go on a cooking course, yeah, did your cooking course, and then you you came back to London and started this catering company, and that's where it all started for you, wasn't it? 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:43.440 Yeah, I started I went to the Cordon Bleu in London, and I um and I lived in a a little bedsit in Earl's Court, and it was the first place that I'd had that

was ever my own, you know, just just this one room, and I was so proud of it. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:59.759 Mind you, it was up four flights of stairs, which was just as well because my landlady had no sense of smell, so she had no idea that I was running a little one-woman catering business in that little bed city. 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:02.799 It had a it had a cooker in the corner. 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:18.879 And um, had she ventured upstairs, she'd have probably found me making smoked salmon sandwiches on the dressing table, and the bed would be covered with um, you know, a sheet and then trays of food that I was busy selling. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:31.200 And the and the communal bath in the th on the third floor would have might have lobsters swimming around in it, or it would have lettuces or potatoes being washed or something. 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:34.720 Um but she never came upstairs, so I was lucky. 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:46.639 And I started my business from there because I I was I started when I was still at the Cordembleau, I would work for other caterers and do go do a day, you know, just to cook for hire, doing odd jobs. 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:52.720 And then I began to get customers who would ask me to do their dinner parties. 00:10:52.799 --> 00:11:08.559 So you I used to go all over London with a basket of, you know, ingredients in one hand and a basket of tools and so for anyone who's been watching Riders, you were the taggy O'Hara of your day then going around London and cooking, cooking for people's dinner parties. 00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:11.440 Exactly, I was cook people's dinner parties. 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:14.480 And um they were not all wonderful. 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:21.039 There was one woman who um mostly people would recommend me to other people, so that's I. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:31.120 You never the great thing about a little cooking business, you don't have to advertise or market or anything, because as long as you do a good job, they'll tell their friends and you get more jobs. 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:38.240 Anyway, this woman in Holland Park, she was a tremendous snob and very difficult. 00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:44.480 But uh, you know, I I did dinner parties for her most most months, perhaps twice a month. 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:48.480 And so I couldn't complain about the fact that she was pretty awful. 00:11:48.720 --> 00:12:02.720 Um but one day she um I uh there was a hatch between the kitchen and the dining room, and I could hear everything that they said in through this hatch. 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:14.960 And one day I heard one of her guests, a man, saying, um, this is so delicious, you must give me the name and number of your cook because I'm looking for a cook for my director's dining rooms. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:17.919 Um and I thought, oh, fantastic. 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:24.240 And then she said, Oh no, no, she said, that woman in the kitchen, that girl in the kitchen, she's not the cook. 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:25.919 She said, I do all the cooking. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:29.679 She said, and she said, I wouldn't dream of hiring a cook. 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:32.320 Um she's just there to do the washing up. 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:37.519 And I wanted to open this catch, you see, put my head out and put her right. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:44.000 But I then remembered that I had been the I'd been the one who hung up all the coats. 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:49.600 I'd hung up all the guests' coats in the in the hall on hooks. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:54.399 And so I went and got my newly printed cards. 00:12:54.799 --> 00:13:06.879 You know, it said Leith's good food, or whatever I called myself at the time, um, and I wrote on them, your dinner was cooked by, and I put them in every single pocket I could find. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:17.519 And you know, it worked because that chap rang me the next day and he gave me the job of doing this director's dining room. 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:22.240 And he said, you know, I I thought your food was absolutely delicious. 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:24.159 You you know really are a good cook. 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:28.159 He said, but I was much more impressed with your marketing skills. 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:34.720 And actually, I think, you know, if you have a business, you're gonna have to market it yourself. 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:39.200 You can't rely on You're not afraid of taking risks, are you? 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:46.000 You're not afraid of kind of putting yourself out there, doing something different, and being that kind of entrepreneurial. 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:47.519 Well, it's fun. 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:53.360 I mean, if you if you say yes to things, yes, you might fall on your face and you might make an idiot of yourself. 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:59.200 But the chances are you'll have a good time and and you enjoy it and you'll learn something. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:05.679 I do think, I mean, I wouldn't ever say that this book of mine is a is a how-to manual, because it's not. 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:10.480 It's just a sort of romp through my life and my thoughts on various things. 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:12.960 In fact, I think it's so much not a manual. 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:18.879 I must quickly warn you that if you're looking for the answer to It's not motivational notes. 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:19.440 It's not done. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:20.000 It's done. 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:43.039 Well, I think it's quite, it might be quite, I hope it's quite motivational or inspiring in this in a general sense, but but it for example, you know, one of the things I talk about, I it I it's mostly chapters that I think, what do I think about exercise, what do I think about medication, what do I think about um you know, plastic surgery, anything that old people think of. 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:47.679 Um and their lots, and sex and love and all that. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:49.679 There is actually a

chapter on sex, isn't there? 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:50.480 Yes, there is. 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:52.080 Dead right there is. 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:53.519 You can't live without sex. 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:55.519 Or at least love. 00:14:55.840 --> 00:14:56.720 Love, yeah. 00:14:57.039 --> 00:14:58.159 Lust and love. 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:08.799 Um but um anyway, the one on ch the the the one on exercise, I hope you'll be relieved to hear, simply says um exercise. 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:10.320 Don't do it. 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:15.759 It is so boring and it takes up so much time. 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:20.879 Although you found this ski sitting, sitting skiing, didn't you? 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:22.159 I did that. 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:25.200 No, that's the best exercise in the world because it's not exercise. 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:38.879 You know, I I took all my um well, my husband and I took all our mutual grandchildren on a skiing holiday one Christmas, and we had the most fantastic time. 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:40.720 But I can't ski. 00:15:40.799 --> 00:15:45.120 I've I've twice thrice tried to learn to ski and I've failed each time. 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:46.799 So I wasn't skiing. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:49.200 And anyhow, I'm too old, so I thought I won't ski. 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:58.960 But I got really jealous because I could see these grandchildren zipping down the and I thought, oh, you know, I really should have tried harder and learned ski. 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:06.159 And then somebody said, My children bought me um two hours of sit skiing. 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:13.919 And sit skiing is you basically you sit in a kind of pram or a wheelbarrow, you know, you sit or an armchair. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:24.879 I mean, you sit like this, and only the chair has got skis under it, and there's handles behind, and you and a really good skier holds the handles, and down you go. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:29.279 And you go rather faster than everybody else, because you weigh a lot. 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:32.799 And so you're pulling him down the slaves. 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:45.279 And my children were skiing after us, and they could hardly keep keep up, and we had such fun because it's tremendously exhilarating, but it's not scary because you're not in ch charge. 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:49.200 You're not thinking, oh God, I I've got to do something, I'm going to crash. 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:51.279 You think, well, no, there's nothing to do with me. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:57.759 And there's something positively liberating about knowing that all he has to do is that. 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:00.879 And you're a goner. 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:03.600 I don't know why that's it. 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:04.559 It is liberating. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:09.039 You think you're just you're handing your resistance over to somebody else. 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:09.680 Lovely. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:10.799 Anyway, I like that. 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:14.559

In the book, because obviously the book is called uh Being Old. 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:15.200 Being old. 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:16.640 It's not as I say, it's not your first book. 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:20.160 You have done an autobiography, we've done lots of cookbooks, you've done lots of novels. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:21.920 But this one on being old. 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:27.680 I I get the sense from reading it that you're actually really enjoying the fact that you're in your 80s. 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:28.960 I absolutely love it. 00:17:29.039 --> 00:17:38.960 I think old age, I mean, of course there are some people for whom old age is miserable, they're ill or they're um lonely, or I mean, of course there are lots of unhappy old people. 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:41.039 I'm not saying I'm not denying that. 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:47.680 But I think for a lot of us it is the best time of your life because you're tremendously free. 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:51.359 You you really don't give a toss what people think anymore. 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:54.000 So you you know, you're free to do what you like. 00:17:54.240 --> 00:18:03.119 And um, and this my generation particularly have more money than than our parents did when they were old. 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:16.000 Because and they have uh, you know, it's just you know, I I think you have you for some people their grandchildren become their whole life. 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:18.240 And if that's what they want, that's lovely. 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:20.400 I'm a terrible grandmother. 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:22.480 I mean, I'm I'm really hopeless. 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:29.359 I mean I adore my grandchildren, and I think they like me because occasionally I come whooping in and we have lovely treats. 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:36.880 But I don't I'm like one of my grand I'm taking one of my grandchildren, who's very keen on tennis, to Wimbledon next week. 00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:38.319 So I'll do that sort of thing. 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:42.960 So they think that I'm uh like Father Christmas, but I don't turn up very often. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:19:04.480 And and anyway, they live in different towns to me, so it's not that but I think for some some grandmothers particularly become complete slaves, and they are necessary as the people you know, they take their ch the children to school and they take them to the park and they take them to the shops and they just do all the work. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:07.680 How many of you look after your grandchildren? 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:10.480 A few. 00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:11.839 Two or three. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:14.720 Well, there's more arms coming up now. 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:21.359 I I I I I think you have uh at least most of you don't. 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:26.240 I think it's uh it's a wonderful thing if that's what you really, really want to do. 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:29.599 But it does take over your life and it can be. 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:38.160 And you

even I would say in the book, even on things that maybe are not so good about getting old, you still put a positive spin on it. 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:42.240 There's one bit where you say, for example, that you like being in hospital. 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:49.519 Well well Well, I I uh yes, if you i as long as they give you enough drugs so you feel fine. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:50.720 It's lovely. 00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:55.279 I'm a great believer in not not not not having any pain. 00:19:55.519 --> 00:20:00.079 Um I think I pop paracetamol like s Smarties, you know. 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:02.400 In fact, much more than I pop smarties. 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:05.200 Because lots of things hurt. 00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:07.200 But they they don't have to hurt. 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:09.920 You just take a pill and pain goes away. 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:11.759 So so I do that. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:16.480 And um yes, I've I've rather enjoyed my hospital stays. 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:23.759 You had some you've you l read lots of books, people bring you cups of tea, you can then go go to sleep. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:26.799 You can have Do Not Disturb on the Door, it's lovely. 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:29.759 And you had some good hospital stories in the book. 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:32.720 Uh w which one are you you thinking of? 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:34.079 There was oh I'm just trying to think. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:37.599 There was one where you were in New York and you got hospital from New York. 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:55.119 Yes, no, no, I I I I um I ended up in I was in a car crash in New York, and I ended up in a hospital right down um in the Bowery end of New York, um very poor, poor district, and into this huge national hospital. 00:20:55.359 --> 00:21:08.960 And as I arrived, um I was j I had been going off on a holiday, and so I had my suitcase for holidays, and all in fact I had all my possessions that I had in in America with me. 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:12.079 My handbag, my coat, and my suitcase. 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:23.839 And when I was in a on a gurney, uh trolley outside the in the corridor waiting to be admitted, um somebody came up to me and said, Is that your suitcase? 00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:25.039 And I said, Yes. 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:30.640 And he said, Well, it won't be yours very long, it'll be stolen before you've turned round. 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:36.240 Um and I thought he was talking nonsense, but anyway, I did watch it carefully. 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:42.559 But do you know when I left that hospital a week later, uh they'd stolen my uh coat. 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:52.720 That suitcase had gone, the coat had gone, and um and my shoes had gone, which was rather difficult. 00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:56.400 And in in the end, I left the hospital in hospital issue. 00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:59.680 They're so used to everything being stolen that they issue. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:05.039 The patients who were leaving with some I had

some far too small puffy clothes. 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:07.519 It was in the middle of winter, it was freezing cold. 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:10.400 Um, some very strange clothes. 00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:20.319 And uh a very kind, rich friend of mine had felt so sorry for me that he checked me into the Mark Hotel, which is probably the Poshest Hotel in New York. 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:29.279 So I arrived in the in in the mark in borrowed puffy things that didn't fit and slippers. 00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:31.440 Anyway, it was fine. 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:32.559 They let me in. 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:39.920 I mean, there's a there's another story when you're talking about health care in the book because obviously, you know, as you get older we have to deal with these. 00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:44.720 And you were saying one of the things you find astonishing is that we don't get to choose surgeons. 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:52.079 And you tell a story of your friends who decided did lots of research on choosing the surgeon. 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:57.839 Yes, well, no, my my husband did a had a very bad knee operation, which didn't work. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:02.640 And then he looked up the surgeon and found he was the bottom ranking surgeon. 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:20.240 If you go on the NHS, there's a w uh on the website you can check the surgeon that you're you're thinking of having an operation done with, and find out how many operations of your kind has he done before, or she, it's usually a he. 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:24.720 How many has he done before, and how suc what's his success rate? 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:44.559 And uh then my husband had to have another operation, and this time he looked on the thing and chose the best one, who was an absolutely amazing surgeon and it was fine, and he had done five thousand of these operations, and his you know, s success rate was 96% or something. 00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:53.039 So I mean why do we just trust somebody uh who to cut up our body without taking a reference? 00:23:53.599 --> 00:24:00.079 You know, if you had a cleaner coming into your house, you'd want to know where something about them, wouldn't you? 00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:11.359 You wouldn't let a you know, you you you you'd check, you'd check on almost ever anybody you employ, but when you go to a doctor, you just trust the doctor. 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:13.519 You'd let them do it. 00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:14.000 Not good. 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:18.799 Um talking of surgery, let's just stay on this for a little for a little bit. 00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:19.279 Really? 00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:39.599 Because you you you do talk about cosmetic surgery and and about Well, I think, you know, people are very ha have they either um think it's absolutely wonderful and it'll fix everything, or they are absolutely horrified by it and thinking that's terrible, you know, it's almost sinful to to have cosmetic surgery. 00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:48.880 And I think it depends, you know, I was rather um poe-faced and when my mother was 70, she decided to have a boob job. 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:51.680 And I thought this was ridiculous. 00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:56.559 I thought I mean I I at the time I must have been 40 or something. 00:24:56.799 --> 00:25:01.759 And I thought, really, mum, you know, I said, you why are you having a boob job? 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:04.720 I mean, it doesn't matter that, you know, about your boobs. 00:25:04.799 --> 00:25:06.880 Nobody's going to see them anyway, you know. 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:11.519 I mean, she'd been a widow for many, many years and had no intention, you know. 00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:17.519 So she said, she said, it's it's nothing to do with uh other people. 00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:20.720 She said, I have hated my tits all my life. 00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:25.039 They're far too big, and I want to have and I'm sick of carrying them around. 00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:32.160 And then she did this, she pulled her strap over, so you see that w that groove in my shoulder. 00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:39.359 She said, that's from my bra, that's from carrying these things around for all the all my life, and I've had enough of it. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:42.799 And I'm and and I so I thought that sounds fair enough. 00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:45.200 So anyhow, she had she had the operation. 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:47.920 She at the time was tremendously overweight. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:26:02.240 She had become almost sedentary because she she had lost her, she had but she had been a great actress before, and she was South African's South Africa's sort of most famous she was she was the email. 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:03.920 Judy Dench or the Maggie Smith. 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:04.720 She was the Judah. 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:06.880 Judy Dench of South Africa. 00:26:07.119 --> 00:26:14.319 Um, but she hadn't had a job for years, because mainly I think because she wasn't very well, because she was very um fat. 00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:22.400 And so anyway, she handled a boob job, which wasn't great, I must say, you know, one of them ended up here and one down here. 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:24.160 But she didn't care about that. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:27.680 The point was they were much less of them, which is what she wanted. 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:39.440 And because she was so pleased at getting rid of them, she then, or some of them, she then started to lose weight, and she became really very much happier. 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:54.240 And when she was seven, just over seventy-one, I think, she got the job of her life, which was playing in in a in a play where she played the lead, a huge play, she was never off the stage, and it was fantastic. 00:26:54.319 --> 00:26:55.519 I mean, it just changed her life. 00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:59.200 So I I'm not saying cosmetic surgery is always bad. 00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:07.680 I had, when I was fifty, I I had really bad bags under my eyes, you know,

horrific bags. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:20.000 Um, and so when I was in South Africa once, I quietly went off and had my bags removed, and and I felt fantastic for it, and I uh and I think it was lovely. 00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:26.000 And I didn't tell anybody, but my sister-in-law, who's as sharp as anything, she noticed to me. 00:27:27.119 --> 00:27:28.799 So then I had to confess. 00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:35.279 But um But you don't have a big beauty, you know you look fantastic, I have to say, you look wonderful. 00:27:35.440 --> 00:27:39.519 But in the book, you talk about the fact you don't, you know, you don't have a massive beauty regime. 00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:42.000 You take a bit of vitamin D and you rely on Nivea. 00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:54.559 Well uh well if if I'm like if I'm like I mean mostly my whole m so-called beauty regime is that I wash my face with soap and water and I put moisturizer on it. 00:27:54.720 --> 00:27:59.200 And the moisturizer is usually those little bottles I steal out of hotels. 00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:07.039 But if I run out of that, if I'm really desperate, I have to go and buy a bottle of moisturizer, I'll get Nivea. 00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:09.759 And I keep telling Nivea that they ought to hire me. 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:11.519 They absolutely should hire you. 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:20.160 I want to be the ambassador for Nibia and be paid lots of money to advertise them because I mean the reason I buy it is because it's cheap. 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:28.160 I mean, really, you know, I meant once um heard Anita Roddick, do you remember the woman who started Body Shop? 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:39.839 She said that all those moisturizers, you know, they can cost£300 or£400 for a small pot of something that's supposed to be magic anti-wrinkle stuff. 00:28:40.079 --> 00:28:50.400 Um she said it's not essentially the moisturizer is fat and it it's has no it's no difference. 00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:58.000 We could do what our ancestors did, which was sp smear our faces with mutton fat or goat fat. 00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:05.359 And it would work it would it would smell a bit different, but it would be just as effective. 00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:18.799 So I I I am rather um I think we're we're we're trapped by clever advertising and we get lured into spending money on stuff you absolutely don't have to. 00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:38.319 And that comes through in the book on the number of different subjects you say you hate it when you feel like we're pulled into things that are just about spending money on stuff that we we don't need and we're we're kind of pushed into stuff and you get you do there's points in the book where you get quite frustrated with big companies and and selling us things. 00:29:38.720 --> 00:29:52.640 Well, because if you think of those if you look th think of a 300 pound pot of of something, the contents will probably cost at the most five pounds, probably less. 00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:56.880 But it's the packaging and the advertising and the profit. 00:29:57.039 --> 00:29:58.400 That's where the money's going. 00:29:58.480 --> 00:30:01.839 It's not going into anyway, so I get a bit hotter under the content. 00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:03.920 No, you do, and um water companies selling. 00:30:05.119 --> 00:30:14.319 You know, I it drives me mad that k kids are now so brand obsessed that they have to have Nike trainers. 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:18.960 There are perfectly good trainers for a tenth of the price. 00:30:20.400 --> 00:30:34.720 And I think you could, you know, if I if I'm uh my next business is I'm going to f fake, have little fake um, you know, the Nike symbol that you stick on your plain white trays trainers from Tesco. 00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:37.839 Who knows? 00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:55.599 This is off the subject, but um I was recently travelling in Asia and I was trying to buy some knockoff Adidas or you know, and uh I went to one shop and I think I was looking, I think they were knockoff converse or something, knockoff adidas, and I think they wanted uh 60 quid for them, like the equivalent in bar. 00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:58.720 And I went, um, 60 quid for this, you know, the knockoff. 00:30:58.880 --> 00:31:01.839 And he went, ah yes, but these are genuine knockoffs. 00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:11.440 And I I I once uh went to a shop in um in Huaheen in in Thailand, which was called Top Fake. 00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:15.920 There you go, that's the way to do it. 00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:18.079 That is the way to do it, isn't it? 00:31:18.319 --> 00:31:19.119 Absolutely. 00:31:19.359 --> 00:31:26.960 Um I mean you can as you were saying, you know, each of the chapters in the uh in the book take you take a di a different subject and you you tell stories from your life. 00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:29.039 And then I rant I rant away about it. 00:31:29.359 --> 00:31:35.200 You do, you tell us what you think politically about stuff, and and some of those are more challenging than others. 00:31:35.279 --> 00:31:46.799 So you know, there's bits about, you know, as you were saying, about cosmetic surgery or or about tattoos or about you know um talking about your previous life or what hospitals or exercise. 00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:51.200 Um but you you don't shy away from death in the book, do you? 00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:53.839 Well, no, I don't think we should shy away from death. 00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:55.599 I mean we're gonna it's gonna come to us all. 00:31:55.680 --> 00:32:01.279 That's you know, death and taxes, only sense uh the only sense absolute certainties. 00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:12.640 Um and I think I I mean I'm just a great believer that you ought to have control of your life if you want to, and therefore control of your death. 00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:17.920 And I'm not saying that um euthanasia is for everybody. 00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:29.279 And not, you know, I I'm not I'm not, it's not I'm not talking like some awful Nazi regime that wants to get

rid of, you know, everybody who's unsuitable. 00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:41.359 Um I just think if you are in pain and you're dying anyway, why can't we have what we would grant to a dog or horse or cat? 00:32:42.400 --> 00:32:47.200 Um why why why do we why are we not allowed to do that? 00:32:47.359 --> 00:32:49.279 Why are we not allowed to get assistance? 00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:56.000 It's perfectly legal to commit suicide, but it's not legal to make sure you do it safely. 00:32:56.400 --> 00:33:01.920 Like with a you know, with a doctor at hand or or with help. 00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:09.680 I mean it's crazy to s to say yes you can commit suicide, but no, you can't get any help to do it. 00:33:10.319 --> 00:33:13.119 That was quite informed by your brother David. 00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:19.200 Yeah, my brother had a my elder brother had an absolutely horrible death in in an NHS hospital. 00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:43.839 With the with the doctors, um I I went to see his consultant and I said, you know, can't you give him more morphine so that he's uh you know just falls asleep and then which is what they used to do before Shipman came and and do you remember Harold Shipman murdered a whole lot of old ladies and he was a doctor. 00:33:44.079 --> 00:33:49.279 And since then doctors have been absolutely terrified of being accused of murder. 00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:56.160 So they uh they won't uh slip you a bit of extra morphine when you're really at the end. 00:33:56.319 --> 00:34:07.119 You know, the th what used to happen is the doctor would say to the relatives, they'd never say openly, um, do you want me to kill your brother? 00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:12.639 But they would say something like I wonder, do you think he's had enough? 00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:14.480 I mean, what do you think? 00:34:14.719 --> 00:34:20.960 And then it would give the relatives a chance to say, you know, he's absolutely longing to die. 00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:22.320 You know. 00:34:22.800 --> 00:34:29.440 And then miraculously within a few days he would fall asleep and go into a coma and then die. 00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:35.119 And it was just uh understood, but nobody talked about it. 00:34:35.679 --> 00:34:41.360 However, since Shipman came along, um that's all changed and it it's very, very difficult now. 00:34:41.599 --> 00:34:47.280 Of course it still does happen occasionally in host in hostels, particularly where they they can check. 00:34:47.599 --> 00:35:12.719 The the danger is that in a in a in a big hospital that that what's hap what's happening is that the a a doctor who would who would really like to uh help somebody out of their misery doesn't dare do it because they're frightened that there'll be a nurse who belongs to the pro-life um pressure group, who who who really passionately believe that it's wrong. 00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:17.360 That nurse will report him and then he will be suspended for six months. 00:35:17.599 --> 00:35:30.480 And even if he knows that he

can say perfectly l legally, I I the reason I gave that chap a bit of extra morphine is I was trying to still the pain. 00:35:31.119 --> 00:35:34.079 I was not trying to kill him, I was trying to still pain. 00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:40.000 And that's fine, because you you're allowed to he's allowed to do as much give as much as he likes. 00:35:40.320 --> 00:35:42.880 But um they're too frightened to do that now. 00:35:43.360 --> 00:35:48.559 So you were very active part of campaigning for an assisted dying. 00:35:48.880 --> 00:35:57.280 For an assisted dying, and and it j it was just um scuppered in the House of Lords, you might know about the But of course. 00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:03.360 He was very active against this. 00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:04.719 What was that line? 00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:08.559 My son, yeah, my son is is it's it's quite funny actually. 00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:22.800 My son is um he's he has very good arguments and he he he he do he just thinks that we shouldn't ever kill people. 00:36:23.599 --> 00:36:29.280 And uh what's that like as a mother and son relationship that you've been up to in this campaign? 00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:33.920 And he was he was effectively leading the MPs against the campaign. 00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:36.400 I lead one side, he leads the other. 00:36:36.639 --> 00:36:45.679 But it's quite uh you know, we went to we went all over America and Canada looking at places where they have a sister dying and where it's legal. 00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:51.920 And um and we went together and we made a documentary for Channel 4 about it. 00:36:52.239 --> 00:37:00.320 And it was very evenly balanced, you know, the channel made sure that he had the same amount of time as I did to argue our case. 00:37:00.559 --> 00:37:07.360 And we both enjoyed it a lot, and we both came back absolutely convinced that we had seen the evidence that supported our side. 00:37:10.639 --> 00:37:12.159 So anyhow, you know what? 00:37:12.239 --> 00:37:16.880 I I always you asked me before we started, is there anything you don't want to talk about? 00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:19.840 And I forgot to say assisted dying. 00:37:20.159 --> 00:37:20.480 Okay. 00:37:22.159 --> 00:37:22.800 I tell you why. 00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:26.320 I tell you why I wanted not to talk about it, because I talk about it all the time. 00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:32.400 I spend a lot of time um trying to um persuade the world that that assisted dying is a good thing. 00:37:32.639 --> 00:37:40.960 But I've noticed that the the the enjoyment levels everybody gets hope that you have to. 00:37:41.280 --> 00:37:41.440 Right. 00:37:41.519 --> 00:37:43.599 Well, tell you what, I'm just looking at my notes then. 00:37:43.679 --> 00:37:46.639 So let's go back to captans in the 70s. 00:37:46.800 --> 00:37:48.079 Shall we go back to clothes? 00:37:48.159 --> 00:37:49.360 Do you want to go back to clothes? 00:37:49.599 --> 00:37:51.599 Okay, yeah, okay, let's let's go back to clothes. 00:37:51.679 --> 00:38:01.039 Because one of the other things I do really like about your book is you talk about the fact that kind of designer gear and um luxury and that sort of thing is wasted on you, don't you? 00:38:01.119 --> 00:38:03.760 You kind of you're you're not you're not for all of that, are you? 00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:09.039 Yeah, well I mean you know if somebody wishes to give me a simiyaki dress, I'm not gonna say no. 00:38:09.199 --> 00:38:10.480 But I would never buy one. 00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:11.760 I'm just too mean. 00:38:13.599 --> 00:38:25.840 Um I mean I do think the designer uh top designers have a great um, you know, they influence everybody's design, everybody else's design, and so I'm I'm more in the rip-off. 00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:28.480 Um but I think You're in the genuine nothing. 00:38:28.639 --> 00:38:31.039 But I don't want I don't want their name on it. 00:38:31.280 --> 00:38:40.639 Um I just like but I think I'm really, really lucky because I married my second husband, uh, who I call my current husband. 00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:42.800 He's sitting in the back there. 00:38:44.239 --> 00:38:52.800 My current husband um is uh was a fashion designer and a m manufacturer for many years. 00:38:52.960 --> 00:38:57.280 So he's really good at colour and he's really good at uh at fashion. 00:38:57.440 --> 00:38:59.519 And he buys all my clothes. 00:39:00.079 --> 00:39:01.440 That is so good, isn't it? 00:39:01.519 --> 00:39:02.480 It's so fantastic. 00:39:02.719 --> 00:39:03.840 It's absolutely wonderful. 00:39:03.920 --> 00:39:07.360 I don't I just um I hate shopping. 00:39:07.440 --> 00:39:18.480 I love clothes and I I and I and I enjoy putting together an outfit or whatever, just sort of helping myself to um all this lovely stuff. 00:39:18.800 --> 00:39:23.840 But he buys everything, and he buys a lot of it very cheaply off the internet. 00:39:24.079 --> 00:39:27.360 He says, I have a wall of necklaces. 00:39:27.679 --> 00:39:29.440 It's actually it's disgraceful. 00:39:29.519 --> 00:39:42.159 It's uh it's as big as that screen up there, and it's full of little hooks, and it's just got necklaces or actually them they're metal trees with little spikes instead of leaves all over them. 00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:56.159 And and there must be 700 necklaces hanging on, because I can't stop, and nor can he, and we buy um he says that the the the limit is ten dollars, but I he does occasionally spend more than ten dollars. 00:39:56.320 --> 00:39:58.239 But they're all cheap. 00:39:58.639 --> 00:40:04.400 And these they hang up on on the on the wall, and I say to myself, this is not an addiction. 00:40:04.960 --> 00:40:07.039 It's definitely it's not an addiction. 00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:11.920 It's an art installation, and I have to keep it refreshed, you see. 00:40:13.519 --> 00:40:14.320 Fantastic. 00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:14.800 I love it. 00:40:16.079 --> 00:40:26.480 It is uh it's I mean, a lot of women um don't like shopping,

but but but do like do like to look good, you know. 00:40:26.559 --> 00:40:30.480 So and they don't have a John who goes shopping for them. 00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:33.199 I know, we all need a John who goes shopping for them. 00:40:33.599 --> 00:40:34.079 Absolutely. 00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:36.719 Well, shall we go to some questions, please? 00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:38.639 Yeah, just having a look here. 00:40:38.800 --> 00:40:41.039 So we do have a microphone, don't we? 00:40:41.199 --> 00:40:42.400 Let me see if I can see. 00:40:42.480 --> 00:40:44.239 Oh, there we go, it's sort of at the back. 00:40:44.400 --> 00:40:48.079 So who would like to kick us off with some questions? 00:40:48.719 --> 00:40:50.559 Somebody must want to ask us. 00:40:50.639 --> 00:40:51.360 Yeah, here we go. 00:40:51.440 --> 00:40:54.480 Down the front here, if that's all right in the orange top. 00:40:55.440 --> 00:40:59.360 And now I'll just wait for the mic if that's all right, and everyone can hear you. 00:41:30.960 --> 00:41:36.000 Um slightly, just in order for to ease f to make it easier for me to find something. 00:41:36.159 --> 00:41:45.760 So I do yeah, it's uh the ready the red end, red and orange or this end, and then it goes to pink, and uh but it's it's I don't I'm not very exact about it. 00:41:45.840 --> 00:41:48.159 Sometimes I just muddle them up. 00:41:49.440 --> 00:41:56.800 You know, one thing I'd love to uh which we haven't talked to and I don't know if we have time to, but I I just think it's uh please do. 00:41:57.199 --> 00:41:58.239 It'll be fun. 00:41:58.559 --> 00:42:09.679 Um when I first got into television, I was on in a show in um uh Time Tees were the with the producers. 00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:11.280 They know they no longer exist. 00:42:11.920 --> 00:42:22.800 And they it was an afternoon show, and I was pr I was the presenter, and I'd never been on television before, but in those days everybody hadn't been on television before because there was no television before. 00:42:23.119 --> 00:42:48.079 I mean we're talking about the early 70s, and it was the beginning of colour television, and um so I had to and I had a horrible, horrible um director who was like he had been a schoolmaster, and he was absolutely um rigid about he didn't like anything to be um improvised or natural. 00:42:48.239 --> 00:42:55.599 You had to have everything on a script, and so if you were interviewing me, your questions would be up above my head and and my answers would be up above. 00:42:55.679 --> 00:42:56.719 I mean, it was just ridiculous. 00:42:57.039 --> 00:42:57.599 Written on the board. 00:42:57.840 --> 00:42:58.960 Yes, written on the board. 00:42:59.360 --> 00:43:10.159 And so I the only part of the the show I enjoyed because was was that I had various people who came to teach me things. 00:43:10.400 --> 00:43:16.960 And for example, I Vidal Sassoon came and taught me about how you use a blow dryer, which was a new invention at the time. 00:43:17.280 --> 00:43:24.480 Mary Berry came with a little freezer and showed me how you you could freeze food because freezers were new at the time. 00:43:24.880 --> 00:43:26.559 Nobody'd nobody had freezers. 00:43:26.800 --> 00:43:32.800 So people came and taught and somebody came and do my makeup and and you know, very various things. 00:43:32.880 --> 00:43:45.360 And then one day a woman came who was sh I don't know if any of you would have heard of her because she's but she was called Lottie Burke, and she was a very famous fitness trainer. 00:43:45.840 --> 00:44:09.039 What today we would and she was very hot on the whole idea of uh the new idea that your that your inner core was what mattered, you know, the muscles inside it didn't matter about this so much, but w what was inside what she called, she used to just call it a a you know, vaginal muscles or ad abdominal muscles. 00:44:09.280 --> 00:44:11.199 Um and she'd bang on about that. 00:44:11.280 --> 00:44:20.079 Anyhow, so she came and she c wanted to um give a demonstration of how how you should stay fit, you see. 00:44:20.159 --> 00:44:28.480 So she had me lying on my on the floor, studio floor on my back, while she she was a she had been a ballet dancer. 00:44:29.039 --> 00:44:33.920 And she was about 70, but she was tiny and very, very light. 00:44:34.239 --> 00:44:38.239 And she was prancing round me like a sort of demented teenager. 00:44:39.119 --> 00:44:43.119 She was German and she I can't do a German accent, but I'll try. 00:44:43.360 --> 00:44:57.840 She was shouting at me and what she was saying was squeeze, squeeze, dieta, dieta, squeeze, squeeze, she'd say she'd say, make like fake like f squeeze, squeeze. 00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:07.840 And she'd charge around absolutely bellowing at me and and telling me to make like f she was so funny. 00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:15.760 And I I bet that director that must have had absolute hysterics up in the gallery. 00:45:15.920 --> 00:45:36.639 And I never ever saw that piece of film and I would I would I'd give my IT to make but they didn't keep film in those days you know they used to I don't take it or they didn't even so I I you know I've never I've never seen it the question is ever since then do you squeeze squeeze? 00:45:36.880 --> 00:45:42.639 No I don't I didn't didn't do anything fantastic. 00:45:43.119 --> 00:45:43.840 Squeeze me. 00:45:44.400 --> 00:45:46.239 Let's take another question. 00:45:46.480 --> 00:45:48.719 Well well we're waiting for another question. 00:45:48.880 --> 00:45:55.760 I mean you know we we haven't mentioned Bake Off um obviously but you were 16 when you started that weren't you? 00:45:56.079 --> 00:45:58.639 Uh older I think. 00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:04.639 Were you yeah yeah no I was 70 I was 75. 00:46:05.039 --> 00:46:34.639 75 wow I was 75 um yeah no I was lucky to get the job wasn't there but that is amazing you know because uh lots of people you know this book is being old starting something new just that's one of

the other things that's so great about old age now is that since there was no retirement age anymore you don't have to retire if you don't want to um that used to be an absolute cutoff wasn't it you know suddenly suddenly you're old at sixty two and you've got to retire. 00:46:34.800 --> 00:47:11.599 Sixty two for goodness sakes sixty two is a mere slip of a thing sixty two you've still got loads loads to do with loads in you exactly anybody else like to ask a question yeah this put the camera down I do love gardening. 00:47:11.760 --> 00:47:18.239 Um I'm not much good at I mean I can't if if I kneel down to weed something I can't get up again. 00:47:18.480 --> 00:47:22.559 So I'm I'm not so good at the physical stuff anymore. 00:47:22.800 --> 00:47:58.400 Um but I do absolutely love it and my husband is a very active gardener so uh we we have a lovely garden and we we m moved from our I had a really big house in the Cotswolds and you know Cotswold uh prices went rocketing up recently and I was just so lucky because my first husband and I had bought that house um you know 50 for nearly nearly 50 years ago, 48 years ago and so it had you know we sold it for a lot a lot of money. 00:47:58.639 --> 00:48:22.400 So I could so I kept it was a farm and a house but the f there was also a little farm cottage where the farmer lived and so we kept five fields round the little farmer's cottage knocked down the farmer's cottage and built an absolutely modern house and I can tell you that the joys of a modern house are so great apart from the fact that um it it does look very amazing. 00:48:22.880 --> 00:48:31.519 Everything works but everything works and you don't have to worry about the roof leaking and the doors shutting and it's all it's a j it's a joy. 00:48:31.679 --> 00:48:38.960 And the garden has so the garden's only five years old now and it's just beginning to look like proper gardens. 00:48:39.199 --> 00:48:43.679 And is it as colourful as you it is it's it's nice and vulgar. 00:48:44.000 --> 00:49:06.320 Is it so you have you um have you lots of vulgar colour do you know Jillie Cooper once said to me because she lives lived in the Cotswolds too she said you know when which is when I moved into our original house also in the Cotswolds up up the road she said the thing about Cotswolds is it's very gentle colours. 00:49:06.480 --> 00:49:28.159 You have to have mauve and white and pink just gentle colours and I took absolutely no notice of that and just have I mean it's the South African in me I'm sure you know if you think of South African flowers they're like canners you know red and orange and so I have nice vulgar colours. 00:49:28.880 --> 00:49:40.800 There's a line in the book which has really made me thought Prue where you say because you're South African that for you you think of nature as being red because most of us here would think of nature as being green. 00:49:41.280 --> 00:49:56.639 Green yeah brown and red yeah brown and red yeah because the felt is brown and anyway I um I I do but but but gardening is just a garden or just a wood. 00:49:56.880 --> 00:50:11.760 I went to uh to um Ireland the other day um last year um to I was a guest judge on a television show where the Irish were choosing their three best gardens in Belfast or something. 00:50:12.079 --> 00:50:19.360 So we I was taken around it was quite a joke me being a judge because I don't know enough about gardening to be a judge I just love it. 00:50:19.519 --> 00:50:30.480 But there was Carol Klein uh Karen Klein and Dermot whatever his name is and they're they are top top gardeners so they know what they're doing. 00:50:30.639 --> 00:51:13.039 So I just trailed round after them saying yes yes I agree and all that but when we got we got to one garden which was just lovely because it had an old fashioned um herbaceous border with which is like a sort of cottage garden just with everything thrown in any old how the colours mixed up and it was just so exciting and when we had done our new garden um four years ago I was trying very hard to make sure that it was all very um sort of um sustainable you know that then we'd have grass mostly grass gardens and and it didn't have nearly as much colour as I like. 00:51:13.199 --> 00:51:24.800 So I came back so inspired by this um Irish garden that I built a whole new um herbaceous border which is amazingly satisfactory. 00:51:26.639 --> 00:51:31.280 It's got every one of these colours and where's things got to with the cookery schools? 00:51:31.679 --> 00:52:01.599 Cookie school well one of the things that I'm really proud of but I wish I could say it was my idea that my cooking school Leith School of Food and Wine has been going for 50 years now and on its 50th birthday the new owner of it because I sold it a while ago the new owner is absolutely wonderful and she decided that all the profits that the school made would go into teaching primary school children for free how to cook. 00:52:01.920 --> 00:52:24.639 So state schools so if any of you've got relatives working in a primary school or um you know daughters or friends all they have to do is to ring up Lee's and say they want to register for the course and and it's free and it's for all primary school kids. 00:52:24.960 --> 00:52:38.320 And I think it'll make a real difference because if you think if we can just teach a a generation of children to love good food and healthy food and to choose it rather than to choose junk. 00:52:39.360 --> 00:52:41.440 They will grow up eating the right food. 00:52:41.519 --> 00:52:49.679 They'll teach their children to eat the right food and we'll we could save the NHS a fortune and we could do something about the nation's health. 00:52:49.760 --> 00:52:52.159 You know I think it's just the most wonderful thing. 00:52:52.400 --> 00:53:00.079 And that's just because the the woman who owns the school is generous enough to say I'm gonna spend all the money on on that. 00:53:00.559 -->

00:53:01.599 That's fantastic. 00:53:01.920 --> 00:54:05.519 It's only it's only for state school uh you pri it's only primary state schools you know non fee non-fee paying schools we had another question down here thanks to see you on the house how did he go on we know Laur Lawrence Lowell and Powin I think Lawrence Llewellynpowin Oh Lo Lawrence Lowell yes I know we have we have we have lots of funny um you know guests come on the show and they all have to cook with me or I cook with them. 00:54:05.760 --> 00:54:08.079 Or I co I cook for them if they don't want to cook. 00:54:08.159 --> 00:54:17.599 He refused to cook he said he didn't like cooking he wasn't going to cook but he turned my whole kitchen into a gallery so he had these pictures up all over the place. 00:54:17.760 --> 00:54:23.760 But we we've had lots of made cook he was terrible cooking he he was the worst was he? 00:54:23.920 --> 00:54:26.400 Yeah was there anyone else who was particularly bad? 00:54:26.719 --> 00:54:58.800 No because he I mean we always end up with good food because I won't let them cook if they if they I mean he didn't want to cook and he so he didn't but um but i it's fun because you know for example Lulu Lulu came and Lulu I remember from the 1970s and she used to come to my restaurant and she was absolutely lovely she she would bounce into the restaurant and she'd kiss all the waiters and she'd say hello to all the customers and she was just light the place up it was fantastic. 00:54:59.039 --> 00:55:06.079 And I hadn't seen her since since those years ago but I invited her to to come on the show and she did. 00:55:06.239 --> 00:55:23.119 And she came in and she kept exactly the same she just looked the same she bounced in she she was really friendly to all the the um crew and and she was can she cook though she can she can she she made it she made a chicken dish. 00:55:23.519 --> 00:55:54.079 Did she yeah um she she's good at cooking she but she was she has a a real pleasure so anyhow but the that we're talking about a program which is called Prudleith Scotsworld Kitchen and it's it's um it was on a on Saturday mornings on ITV it's now being re-shown on the food program and it'll come back and you've missed 30 episodes of it so you have to get it on catch up. 00:55:54.400 --> 00:56:17.199 And my husband is in it and this is what is perhaps a slight mistake because I thought because it's filmed in our house that he would get quite pissed off really if if um the whole house was taken over by cre crew and people with you know a film crew has so much junk and they were there for two weeks and I thought John will hate this. 00:56:17.440 --> 00:56:31.280 So I said to the crew why don't we have bring in John and John can do some stuff because he's he he he's he's not at all nervous and he and he and we'd done a gardening program once together before and so he said yes. 00:56:31.519 --> 00:57:49.199 And you know he has become so popular that the other day I was in the co-op with him and we were shopping and I was filling the trolley and the woman behind the till caught sight of him oh she said you're the man off the Cotswold Kitchen you're John Playthrough she said I absolutely love you she said in fact I'm in love with you and she's looking at him like this and I am there patting the pad my way not a glance my way I've I've made a mistake here I'm supposed to be the telestar you're the telestar so telestar writer novelist businesswoman non-executive director uh TV chef um you have also said you would have liked to have been an architect a travel writer a politician an actress what's next for you I don't think I manage any of those last four things but I don't know I don't know what's left I I recently walked down a catwalk which was amazing I mean the a couple of friends of ours who are designers said what about why didn't you walk for us? 00:57:49.360 --> 00:58:06.880 It's called walking for you will you walk for me I said what do you mean all do you walk for me I mean walk down the catwalk I said don't be silly John says I walk like a sailor you know I sort of swayed on and I can't do that thing that that models do you know they tuck their bums in and they and and they sort of look very soft. 00:58:07.119 --> 00:58:14.800 You obviously didn't listen to what was she called Lottie if you'd done squeezy squeezy or whatever if I did squeezy squeezy squeezy squeeze you'd be able to do it. 00:58:15.440 --> 00:58:21.440 Lottie Berg and you're you're supposed to glide down and they said no no no you don't need to do that just walk down like you normally walk down. 00:58:21.599 --> 00:58:54.960 Anyway I didn't have time for a fitting so um they had but they had my measurements and so when I arrived they had this latex tube black black latex tube and it took two men to pull it onto me and um and and then I and and then I had great clumpy shoes because I can't possibly wear high heels anyway so I had great clumpy black thing and rather got gothic makeup and it was bondage gear. 00:58:55.039 --> 00:59:07.119 I mean that's no question but you know I absolutely loved it I and I I pranced on the I having a great time and so I've now done four of them. 00:59:07.519 --> 00:59:18.639 So you've done bondage gear in your 80s I think that sort of says there's not much left to do it's been wonderful to have you have thank you so much for shuffling up to see us can everybody give a mess a round of applause