I'm terrified of being poor, I always have been. It's growing up as a Methodist. I'll spend that bit of extra money to get a better seat on a train sometimes, because it's quieter and calmer, but I refuse to spend money on clothes.

Building your own house is a primal urge, one of those universal genetic drives like the need to provide for your family.

Building your own home is about desire, fantasy. But it's achievable; anyone can do it.

Building a house from scratch in the middle of a field is a bit like building a prototype car. As with all prototypes, if you're building a car you usually have the luxury of producing several prototypes before you arrive at the production line version - so the opportunity for changing things is quite rich.

My mother wrote a book. Unfortunately, it ended up being published posthumously. But I'm glad she did, because it taught me a lot about my family that, otherwise, I probably wouldn't know.

Room' was more a study of an individual event, and 'The Family' takes off from there.

I think that when moms just give themselves up, the kids know. They feel guilty; they resent their mother for making them feel guilty, and then they grow up and do the same thing. Whereas my mother showed me that it's okay to focus on yourself.

As parenting goes, knowing the whereabouts of one's children is pretty fundamental.