Timothy Bentinck, actor & author: One minute interview

Bentinck plays David Archer in BBC Radio 4's 'The Archers' and is the author of new children's book, 'Colin the Campervan'

Bentinck says: 'I always wanted to be Dan Dare' (Lisa Bowerman)

Where are you now and what can you see?

In France on the Eurostar going to Paris for a day's dubbing [for an English voiceover to a Gerard Depardieu documentary]. Looking out on the evocative fields of Picardy.

What are you currently reading?

I've just started The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes. He's a world authority on DNA and human evolution. I just finished The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth. On the Kindle, I'm wallowing in Pratchett's Unseen Academicals.

Choose a favourite author and say why you admire her/him

Patrick O'Brian. His Aubrey-Maturin tales of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars read as though he were transported here from that time, and his biographies of Joseph Banks and Picasso are definitive. Apparently he used to write on two pages simultaneously with both hands!

Describe the room where you usually write

Sitting at an old desk, surrounded by books, old computers and guitars, looking out on a duckpond where the behaviour of the ducks and geese is a constant inspiration. The Muse flies in the window and fills the blank computer screen, or provides the lyrics for the song.

Which fictional character most resembles you?

I'm told it's Tigger. I always wanted to be Dan Dare.

Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?

My late father, Henry Bentinck, who, in the late 1960s, foresaw and wrote about global warming, the internet, iPhones and Wikileaks. His novel ISOWORG (International Society for World Government) was extraordinarily prescient.

Tim Bentinck plays David Archer in BBC Radio 4's 'The Archers'. His children's book, 'Colin the Campervan', is published by FBS (£5.99)