I've had quite a wide spread of a career. But it's not like I've had to negotiate what Sienna Miller has had to negotiate, or even Felicity Jones, for example.

My goal has always been, from the time I was at drama school, about longevity.

It's great to have a job and then go to another one, and have another one to go to after that. It doesn't always happen; you might be waiting a few months. But I've had some interesting roles, and worked with some great people. And it has been a really interesting mix between theatre television and film.

There's such a fascination with celebrity. I think that's a very different thing to being an actor.

I read a lot of fantasy. I adored 'Anne of Green Gables'. But my favourite books as a child were probably Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' series, about a pioneer family in the mid-19th-century American west. I often thought of them as I was writing 'The Last Runaway'.

In the Seventies, my children played in the street, read politically incorrect stories, ate home-cooked food and occasional junk and, yes, were sometimes smacked.

Women call me all the time and tell me, 'You inspired me to get out of a bad situation,' or 'You inspired me to take the reigns for myself and go and do this.' I try to tell people to live their best life, and do what you know you need to do for yourself and your family. You need to be supported.

My parents and my older brother played. You kind of want to do what your family does. They were on the court. I'm like, 'I want to be on the court, too.'