Turn up for the books

Kirsty Wark, who presents the BBC's coverage of the Man Booker Prize tonight, is much more than the serious face of Newsnight, as Louise Jury discovers

Some people take airport thrillers for poolside reading. When Kirsty Wark went on holiday to Majorca last week, she took the Man Booker Prize shortlist. This might not be everyone's idea of relaxation, but it does at least mean that the redoubtable journalist best-known for her work on Newsnight will be completely up to speed when she presents the results of Britain's most prestigious literary prize at the British Museum tonight.

"You couldn't do it without reading the books," she says, breaking from her holiday to talk work. "You'd get into all kinds of trouble. It's insulting to your audience if you haven't prepared."

By contrast, what she was going to wear for one of the publishing world's most glittering occasions was not quite so under control last week. No new dress had been purchased, and nothing yet borrowed from Armani as happened last year. Yes, Kirsty Wark is a triumph of substance over style.

She is philosophical about the fact she can appear largely serious, even humourless. It is, she says, inevitable given the nature of her work interrogating politicians on Newsnight. But she sees nothing strange about her complementary career presenting arts programmes, from architecture to literature. Before her holiday, she had been in New York to do British television's only interview with the writer Donna Tartt, whose long-awaited second novel is published this autumn.

"I don't believe there's such a great separation [between arts and politics]. Before I did Newsnight, I did The Late Show. What Newsnight offers people is a mix of both – particularly in Newsnight Review. It's a natural fit. People who watch Newsnight are likely to be readers and go to the movies. And it's fantastic for me – the best of both worlds."

In fact, Wark appears to have the best of all worlds, with a successful and lucrative career, a star status in her native Scotland (and a strong reputation everywhere) and a family. Her career revolves around her two nights a week on Newsnight, which leaves two days for other projects. She also has a production company with her husband, Alan Clements, which makes dramas such as The Russian Bride and children's shows, such as Jeopardy for the BBC, alongside the factual programmes in current affairs, education and the arts with which it began in 1990.

Some critics are suspicious of the clout her BBC name gives the business, but she says she is too busy these days to be closely involved with day-to-day decisions which are, instead, left to her husband and the staff. "When we started out, clearly it was an advantage to have me, but 90 per cent of Wark Clements work is nothing to do with me now. And I can't work on other channels anyway," she says.

Wark has continued to live in Glasgow, commuting to London for her BBC duties. She was ranked number four in a "power list" compiled by Scotland on Sunday and beat the golfer Tiger Woods as the celebrity most Scottish firms would like to hire. She has two children, Caitlin, 11, and James, 10, on whom she appears to dote: "I don't work weekends. You must have a sense of priorities." Recalling a conversation with a female colleague, she adds: "You just want to be able to say I was a half-decent mother rather than I did a great outside broadcast from Northern Ireland."

Money is certainly not a problem in the Wark-Clements household. Her last contract with the BBC was worth some £750,000 over three years, while the company is worth millions. "I'm rewarded for what I do, but I'm absolutely not one of the BBC's highest-paid presenters," she says. "I work pretty hard, I'm pretty committed, but it's enjoyable work and pretty privileged."

She says commentators always discuss presenters' pay according to their gender but she has no idea what others earn. She also refuses to be drawn on the allegations of sexism and ageism made against the BBC by colleagues such as Kate Adie. "The time I joined the BBC as a graduate researcher [in 1976] was the time that the BBC realised it should be promoting women and encouraging women. I'm not saying that other women don't suffer but I don't think I have."

But she dismisses the myth of superwoman. "There are lots of things I don't do very well and you just have to accept that there will be things that won't be ticked off the list. I don't believe in this business of having it all."