Cultural Life: Paloma Faith, singer

(PA)

Music: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 'Dig, Lazurus, Dig!!!', Edith Piaf "La Vie en Rose", Billie Holiday "Lady Sings the Blues", Lavern Baker "Voodoo Voodoo", Wynonie Harris 'Greatest Hits', Rufus Wainwright 'Want Two', and Erykah Badu 'Mama's Gun'.

Books: I'm reading 'The Bandini Quartet' by John Fante. The character Bandini is tormented by his inadequacies and is aware of them. It's funny because it's reassuring. I'm also reading 'Immortality' by Milan Kundera.

Television: I don't watch TV, ever, and I've only got four channels. I have to stand on a chair holding the aerial to get reception. I watch sitcoms on my iPlayer. I enjoyed the recent British sitcom 'Outnumbered' (below) about a family in London. I like the little girl's honesty – I feel I'm a lot like her. She questions things in the same way I do. My mum and I were a single-parent family but I have 24 cousins on my mum's side. I like 'Outnumbered' because it questions and laughs at what reality is. I agree that conventionality is absurd.

Films: The most recent film I saw was 'Four Lions' about terrorism. I didn't think it was politically correct. It's sad that religion has that kind of hold on people but it trivialised the plight of a suicide bomber. 'Invictus' is one of the most inspiring films I've seen in long time. It changed my whole way of dealing with life. I started to think, "What would Nelson Mandela do in this situation?" It teaches you that you are never beneath anyone and not to indulge pettiness. Also, 'Where the Wild Things Are', based on the children's picture book by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak. It got slated and I don't know why. There was something beautifully simple about it.

Paloma Faith performs at Lovebox tomorrow (Lovebox.net)