It takes several doses of any veg before children like it, but once they do they'll like it for life. You wouldn't give up on a child who didn't want to learn to read. Learning to eat is every bit as important.

I am not saying celebrity chefs don't encourage children to cook. However, their programmes are so entertaining, you end up stuffing your face with Pot Noodles instead of learning from them.

The way to get to like good food is by learning to cook, which is why I'm for ever banging on about children learning to cook.

My first taste memory is of our nanny in South Africa making white bread sandwiches with salad cream, which was potato mashed with a cheap mayonnaise thing with bits in it of - I suppose - pickled cucumber. I absolutely loved them.

I'm a suck-it-up-and-move-on kind of person. Every day is a new day, and you'll never be able to find happiness if you don't move on.

It's not even my job to educate, but what I do is try to facilitate by creating a book that works on different levels. I do want to entertain and bring some joy to the reading experience. If it holds a little kernel of knowledge that readers choose to explore, well, that's great.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

Do not be afraid that joy will make the pain worse; it is needed like the air we breathe.