The 5-Minute Interview: Vanessa Feltz, Television & radio presenter

'Falling in love has surprised me'

Vanessa Feltz, 44, is a radio presenter and columnist, and returns to television with "Real Lives" daily on ITV1 from 4 December.

If I was not talking to you right now I'd be...

Having my nails done. I'm in Golders Green at a manicurist, getting them painted scarlet.

A phrase used far too often is...

"At the end of the day".

I wish people would take more notice of...

The incorrect use of the apostrophe.

I'm good at....

Spelling. I have a big silver trophy to prove it. I was BBC Star Spelling Champion in 2005, and I slaughtered lots of other clever clogs to win.

But I'm very bad at...

Directions. I can't find places on a map. If I do get somewhere, I won't be able to get back. If I walk out of a door, I will turn the wrong way.

The most surprising thing that ever happened to me was...

Falling in love, recently, at the age of 44, with a wonderful man 10 years my junior.

I am not a politician but if I was...

I would do something about inheritance tax. It was intended to punish the very rich, and now it's affecting everyone with a semi-detached house.

You know me as a television personality, but in a truer life I'd have been a...

Landscape gardener.

The best age to be is...

16. Like the song in The Sound of Music.

In a nutshell, my philosophy is this:

I've purloined this from a great rabbi called Hillel: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am for myself alone, what am I?"

Rachel Shields