As a kid, growing up, as far as I was concerned, I was Luke Skywalker. Any sort of small victory or any adversity I would come up against at school, I was like, 'How would Luke Skywalker deal with this?' Everybody was the Empire; anybody who bullied me at school was the Empire.

I've become really aware since putting out music that some people can't get past the acting thing. But acting was never what I meant to do.

I was a very anxious kid. I was bullied at primary school and responded by making myself as anonymous as possible at secondary school.

Bristol is known for having quite a good success rate of music - Massive Attack and Portishead, that drum and bass, dance music scene. I never listened to that stuff when I was a kid, but my parents did, and my parents knew some of those people.

I have been luckier than anyone I know or even heard of. I had a very happy childhood, a good education, I enjoyed working as a teacher, journalist and author. I have loved a wonderful man for over 33 years, and I believe he loves me, too.

The best way to get kids reading more is to give them books that they'll gobble up - and that will make them ask for another.

In 1998 I invested in the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at Strathclyde Uni and subsequently put more capital into enterprise education to try and help change the culture.

There are many types of education: formal education, street education, personal education, experiential education, and I've found that I've had different partners who have a lot of wonderful intellect and education from all different types of sources.